Noel Rockmore (American/New Orleans, 1928-1995) , "Moose Picnic Riverview Park Chicago", 1956, oil on canvas, signed and dated lower right, signed, dated and inscribed "Picnic" on stretcher, 31 1/4 in. x 53 1/4 in., framed . Ill.: "Loneliness in Numbers". Life Magazine. 43.7 (1957): 74-75. Note: The important and rare painting offered here was created in 1956 during a period when Noel Rockmore (then known as Noel Davis) was intensely fascinated by public gatherings and completed a series of drawings and works on canvas documenting American fraternal organizations. “Moose Picnic” was originally sketched in Riverview Park in Chicago and was featured in Life Magazine in 1957 in an article titled “Loneliness in Numbers.” With many engaging details in this work, from the sparse picnic spread of eggs, fruit and a single loaf of bread to the looming entrance of the carnival in the background, Rockmore fills the foreground with a spectrum of interesting characters mid-revelry, save for one person lying on a picnic table in a post-carousing nap. He skillfully combines the dark undertones of Hieronymus Bosch’s psychedelic sprawling canvases with the compositional elements of Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s eventful genre scenes (particularly “The Harvesters,” whose perspective, negative space, and horizon line are astonishingly similar). Rockmore’s resulting work is an enchanting and modern feast for the eyes. Ref.: “Loneliness in Numbers.” Life Magazine. 43.7 (1957): 74-75.