NOEL (ROCKMORE) DAVIS (AMERICAN 1928-1995) Self Portrait with the Artist's Sister 1948 oil on canvas 101.6 x 127 cm (40 x 50 in.) framed dimensions: 119 x 144 cm (46 7/8 x 56 3/4 in.) signed and dated upper center  PROVENANCE Private Collection, Pennsylvania Shannon's, October 25, 2018, lot 142 LOT NOTES Noel Rockmore, born Noel Davis in New York City in 1928. Over the course of a prolific and turbulent career, Rockmore produced a vast body of paintings, drawings, and prints that ranged from striking portraits to jazz-infused street scenes, carnivalesque imagery, and haunting self-reflections. Raised in a family steeped in music and art, his mother was the noted illustrator Gladys Rockmore Davis, Rockmore, studied at the Art Students League and in the 1950s, Rockmore gained acclaim in New York for his expressive portraits and psychological realism, but by the early 1960s, he moved to New Orleans, seeking a more vibrant and less restrictive artistic environment. It was in New Orleans that Rockmore fully came into his own, forging a unique path rooted in the city’s culture of music. He became especially known for his portraits of Preservation Hall jazz musicians—rendered with sensitivity, empathy, and gritty detail—documenting an era of American cultural history with reverence and urgency. Today, Noel Rockmore is recognized as a deeply original American artist whose work preserves the spirit of mid-20th-century cultural and social life, particularly in New Orleans. His paintings are held in collections such as the Smithsonian Institution, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, and numerous private collections. Rockmore’s legacy endures not only through his prolific output but also through his unflinching gaze—one that sought to capture not just appearances, but the essence of the human experience.