The way of the muse. Charles Levinson was an ex-soldier gigolo appears in Pavel Tchelitchew’s ‘Man with the Rose Garland’. This painting came up in 2018 at Sothebys with the collection of Madonna’s record producer Seymour Stein. Here he is photographed nude by George Platt Lynes in Paris sometime between 1930-34.
Charles Levinson, known as ‘Le Vincent’, was an ex-soldier who in 1931, inspired Pavel Tchelitchew to produce a series of tattooed circus figures. The American novelist Samuel Steward had a tattoo of a rose garland across his chest in direct homage to this portrait.
