Christine Rosamond

Early life

Christine Rosamond was born in Vallejo, California to Victor and Rosemary Presco on October 24, 1947. Rosamond was the third of four children who grew up in an extremely dysfunctional household. Both parents were alcoholics and all four children eventually became alcoholics. Christine and her brother John later joined Alcoholics Anonymous. Their parents were selfish alcoholics who did not contribute to their children's gifts. Quite often, Vic and Rosemary failed to feed their children. John was Christine's protector - and teacher! She looked up to him, and they adored each other. John's artwork was chosen twice to tour the world in a Red Cross show, when he was thirteen, and again, when he was sixteen. John and his friend, Bill Arnold, formed a creative bond when they were twelve. As artists, writers, and poets they emulated the relationship of Jack London, and George Serling. Growing up in Oakland, they considered themselves Bohemians. Christine and John were pioneers in the Hippie Movement. They lived in a famous commune with the daughters of Jirayr Zorthian, who has been titled 'The Last Bohemian' Seyburne and Berry Zorthian became close friends of the famous Prankster, Nancy Hamren, who dated Stanley Augustus Owsley, and lived in 'The Idol Hands' commune. Betty Zorthian paid the rent. Nancy went to Junior High with John, and went on double dates with Rosamond, who did not paint or draw.

Victor William Presco was born in San Francisco. His grandparents were Forty-Eighters, and were neighbors and friends of Joaquin Miller. Vic's grandfather, Wensel Anton Prescowitz, immigrated from Bohemia. This was a radical family. Rosemary Rosamond was one of three beautiful daughters born to Mary Magdalene Rosamond, and Royal Rosamond, a writer and poet, who published short stories in Out West magazine. He published two books, Ravloa of Thunder Mountain and 'Born In This Clay. He was a good friend of the Ozark Historian, Otto Rayburn. Frank Wesley Rosamond was also a Friend of Erle Stanley Gardner, and Dashiell Hammett.They would sail out to the Channel Islands with other members of the Black Mask. When Bill Arnold moved in with the Prescos as the age of sixteen, Christine fell in love with him. She had a secret crush on this brilliant young man that died at the age of nineteen. He was hit by a train, at a crossing. In one of her works, Rosamond put herself in a car on a rail crossing. 'The Crossing' is full of portent. Why Rosamond put herself and her nine-year-old daughter, Drew Benton, in danger at Rocky Point, remains a mystery. Growing up on San Sebastian Avenue in Oakland, the four Presco Children raised themselves and each other. These were the Happy Days The eldest child, Mark Presco, was into electronics. He would put a speaker in our pumpkins, and installed a makeshift intercom. It was a children's Renaissance. After seeing the large portrait John did of his muse, Rena Easton, Christine took up art in 1972 in order to support herself and her young daughter, Shannon Rosamond.

Career beginnings

In 1964, Christine accompanied her brother and his friend, Bryan MacLean on the Monday Night Art Walks on La Cienaga Blvd. John and Bryan were the school artists at University High School in West Los Angeles. Bryan and Christine were lovers. Bryan was a roadie for the Byrds when he was seventeen. He would later play with the famous rock group 'Love'. On these walks, Rosamond learned much about art, and how galleries operated. Bryan knew the Hollywood crowd. His father was an architect for the stars. He designed Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor's home. According to the Rosamond genealogist, Liz and Christine share the same grandfather, James Rosamond, who along with his brother, Samual Rosamond, fought in the War of Independence.

Rosemary and her sister, Lilian, dated Errol Flynn in their teens. This was the claim to fame for the Presco children. Attending minor art classes at UCLA saw her career begin to rise in 1972 when her then husband, Scott Hale, encouraged Christine to display her paintings at the 1972 Westwood Art Fair. Priscilla Presley bought one her works which got the attention of Ira Cohen, who owned Ira Roberts Gallery located on North Robertson Blvd. Ira purchased all of her work and commissioned Rosamond to complete a painting for him on a weekly basis. Being a single mother, this was a hard contract to meet. Rosamond purchased a projector, and according to her ex-husband, Garth Benton, she employed images of models she cut out from fashion magazines, then, broadcast them on an empty canvas. Nevertheless, her immense talent, combined with the climate of the era and the 1970s feminist zeitgeist, Rosamond sold millions of her paintings to women and men everywhere. This was the age of posters and album art. Artists like Peter Max and Mucha accompanied the Rock and Roll era. Inexpensive posters decorated the homes of the Hip and the Yuppie middle class, then a gentrification of the hippie or Bohemian movement. A Rosamond print was a symbol of affluence. Young Liberated Women were getting married and giving birth to children. The gaze of a Rosamond Woman hanging on one's wall, grounded these young mothers, who also collected the images of the Presco grandchildren. 'Garden Child' is Cean Presco, the son of Mark Presco. There was a change in the look of mannequinn. The influence of the fashionable Rosamond Women was seen all over the world. Nothing like this had occurred before. Serious artists were threatened.

Several Rosamond imitators put their beautiful women on the market, looking to cash in on this Rosy success. Christine offered to teach her brother, John, her style, but, he turned her down. This is when Rosamond sought to be seen as a Fine Artist, whose work may hopefully hang in a museum one day. But, her fixation on healing her family, created an un-healthy focus. Rosamond formed several family partnerships, and even though she could have lived anywhere in the world, and mingled with creative people, as is often the case with dysfunctional families, there were chains that bind. Rosamond's efforts to break free of these chains and destructive influences, led her to sue Ira Cohen for exploitation. Ira came to pick up her weekly work, earning millions from it without telling her that Japanese collectors loved Rosamond's "big eyes" style. As a profound coincidence, Christine's uncle, Jim Bigalow - who owned Sam's Anchor Cafe in Tiberon - was a good friend of Walter Keane and Margaret Keane, also world-famous for paintings of children and women with a "big eyes" style. Jim owned several of these pictures. While Walter took all the credit for the work, it was actually done by Margaret.

Rise to fame

Though Christine saw massive success during her time working for Ira Cohen, she also felt as though her work was being devalued as she believed her art belonged in galleries and not simply on merchandise. In an attempt to elevate her work from poster to fine art, Christine began a working relationship with the art printer Jack Solomon who owned Circle Gallery in San Francisco. Solomon commissioned painters for lithographs and in this environment where Christine's art was not only appreciated but celebrated, Christine experienced her most meteoric rise to fame of her young career. For a brief period she was known as "the most published artist in the world." She continued to paint and release images as lithographs under the banner of her own company in order to keep artistic control. Rosamond spent four months in Paris where she completed four new lithographs with the prestigious Atelier Mourlot.

Christine had a falling out with John when he met with her new husband, Rick Partlow, who was an actor who won a Grammy for his foley work. Rick was pushing a script about his traumatic past. Rosamond would later marry, Garth Benton, the cousin of the muralist and artist, Thomas Hart Benton, the teacher and friend of Jackson Pollack. Jirayr Zorthian was influenced by Thomas Benton. The Zorthian family is in the process of locating Jirayr's murals. Add to this the art of Philip Boilleau, then you have an Artistic Family Dynasty as put forth by John, the family historian, in his blog Royal Rosamond Press. Rosamond's popular career led the way for Twitter and Facebook, even Wikipedia. The Mass Mind is worth billions. Everyone can buy in for next to nothing. Our culture is for free. The worth of anything has entered a New Zone. With the mass ownership of a personal computer, a fashionable woman can surf the internet and find one beautiful woman after another, women with a certain look who best typify their fashionable and creative choice. You too can be a 'Rose of the World'. She is our creation. Before Rosamond took up art, she loved to sew and make her own clothing. She was the model in some of her work. This is key to understanding her work. Many women were caught up in the Rosamond fashion show, and her style they emulated. Did Christine want to be a fashion designer when she was a teenager?

Death

Just weeks after Christine's final art expo in 1994, she was invited to stay in a famous home twenty miles south of Carmel at Rocky Point. As reported in the Carmel Pinecone, Rosamond had had nightmares about a giant wave causing her demise. On March 26, 1994, Rosamond was exploring tidal pools in a cove along with her sister and eight-year-old daughter, Drew. A rogue wave, unusual for that time of year, rushed into the cove. The sister was able to save the child, but Rosamond was swept out to sea. She was 46. Christine was supposed to have written a three-hundred-page autobiography, but family members have been unable to locate it. Very few of her written words exist. Her brother John maintains a blog of family memoirs and genealogical research.

Personal life

Christine Rosamond, a largely self-taught artist who achieved phenomenal success early in her career, often felt that her rapid ascent did not allow her sufficient time to develop a distinct artistic identity. She is sometimes classified as a Pre-Raphaelite artist due to stylistic similarities.

According to John's research, Garth Benton and Christine were also kin to Susan Boilleau, the daughter of Senator Thomas Hart Benton, and sister-in-law of John Fremont, founder and first Presidential candidate of the Republican Party. The Fremonts held a salon in San Francisco attended by Mark Twain and Bret Harte. Susan held a similar salon in Paris. Her son, Philip Boilleau, was also an artist whose female figures resemble Rosamond's and were often used on magazine covers. John believes that Christine was unaware of the legacy of art in her family background.

Garth Benton was a muralist and a friend of Gordon Getty. His work can be seen at the Getty Villa. Drew Benton and her half-sister, Shannon Rosamond, are also artists. Garth Benton died of cancer in April 2012.