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Bernard Winter (fourth from right in above photo) sketched several of the centenarians at Isabella Geriatric Center, including Isabel Broadus (top) and Deborah Rosenberg (left). PHOTO: Gloria Pazmiño.
One used to be a jazz pianist. Another an expert baker from Georgia. There was one more who had a British accent and taught children for 32 years. They all lived through the last century, and Bernard Winter, a Northern Manhattan artist, took it upon himself to sketch each of them with the help of a pad of paper, a good conversation, and an engaged ear. Winter captured not just their image, but their thoughts, reflections, and memories through the lead lines of a sketch and the swift detailed strokes of his brush creating the collection “Listen, Look, and Be.”
Winter, an art teacher at the Manhattan School for Children, spent the last year getting to know a select group of centenarians residing at Isabella Geriatric Center. Winter, who heads an art class, came up with the idea after having his students interview and draw the oldest members of their families, an activity that children carried out hoping to learn from their elders. For Winter it became an avenue to meet the centenarians and provide their families with something to preserve their memories.
“I knew painting these portraits would have a benefit to the Washington Heights community,” said Winter, who received a grant from the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance to complete the project last year. He added that as he planned out his portraits of the seniors he realized that the project made emotional sense: not being able to paint his own grandparents, Winter began what he described as an “act of service” that he hopes to reflect the respect that seniors deserve.
Through the span of a year, beginning last February, Winter began his visits to Isabella on Fort George Hill after having been directed to a select group of centenarians. Winter took off, with tape recorder in hand, a few pencils, and an unintimidating curiosity to meet the residents, at times making initial visits without his art supplies so that they would become comfortable with him.
“Most residents were eager to have a visitor, but some were shy about having their picture taken, some didn’t understand why I wanted to draw them,” said Winter.
During his attempt to draw a particularly shy subject, Isabel Broadus, Winter learned that she had been a jazz pianist in the 1930s and enjoyed listening to music. “I brought in a boom box one day and played American classics for her, she really lit up,” said Winter. Broadus has since passed away, and there’s a strong testament of her grasp on her earthly presence in the transcript of her interview, where after discussing her birthday she predicts that she won’t be around to see the next one. She was right. Today a smiling image of her emblazoned across the canvas appears to conserve her light and energy. When Winter began to draw Broadus, she continued to ask why. Winter finally replied that he needed the practice, as a pianist she understood this need finally allowing him to photograph her and sketch her.
The final product is a collection of eight color portraits in gouache, a form of watercolor that Winter painted from his photographs and sketches of each centenarian. In deciding whether or not to include a background in the paintings, Winter said that he chose depending on how he felt the subject was relating to his or her environment. While some of them were very aware of their surroundings, others were a bit more distant, and spoke through interpreters, a process all showed in the interview transcripts and the final portraits.
One of the notable subjects, was Deborah Rosenberg (“sharp as a pin, still able to recall events from the First World War”) who told stories of her childhood in Liverpool and teaching as Winter sketched. A fan of Sherlock Holmes, good mysteries, and Greek legends, Rosenberg retold of meeting her husband, her childhood in Liverpool, and reaching her 100th birthday.
During Winter’s first exhibition of the work in February, the subjects and their families gathered at Isabella Geriatric Center to view the portraits, meet the artist, and receive from Winter framed copies of his work and transcripts from the interviews he carried out.
“On a personal level, I have not worked in depth with portraiture until now,” Winter said. “This project has helped me grow as an artist but it also became a service to the community by bringing awareness about the dignity, humanity, and the stories of the frail and elderly who live in our neighborhood.”
The “Listen, Look, and Be” collection is currently on exhibition at the Manhattan School for Children where Winter teaches. His work can be seen on the 3rd floor of the school in their green house corridor. The Manhattan School for Children is located on W. 93rd Street between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues.
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