Tag: John Lennon

For John Lennon (1940-1980), art was his first love. Long before he began playing the guitar, he liked to draw, eventually attending the prestigious Liverpool Art Institute where he studied from 1957 until 1960. Even after he hit the big time with the Beatles, he maintained his interest in art and drew continuously. In 1969 he was to create a portfolio of four drawings which he entitled “Bag One”, illustrating his wedding with Yoko Ono and their honeymoon. These, he presented to his wife as a gift. The Bag One suite represents the only hand signed prints available by John Lennon. Later editions, of which this present work is one, were authenticated by John Lennon’s embossed signature, the embossed printer and publisher’s mark, and John’s personal red chop mark. This was a device used by Oriental artists to sign or mark their work with their own individual patented stamp or chop. Lennon’s mark, hand-stamped at the bottom right corner of the actual image, was intended by him to read “Like a Cloud, Beautiful Sound”.