Frank Sinatra “Ol’ Blue Eyes” reimagines Sinatra’s famous 1938 mugshot, taken when he was 23 years old, rendered in black and white with his piercing blue eyes as the singular point of color, a nod to his lifelong nickname.
Bold brushstrokes of black and white sit over a lightly primed cotton canvas, letting the raw, tan color of the fabric show through for warmth, while drips, polka dots, and splatters show discreetly through Sinatra’s face, adding character and drama to the arrest-era image. In 1938, Sinatra was arrested by the Bergen County, New Jersey Sheriff’s Department and charged with seduction, an archaic crime alleging he’d convinced a woman to sleep with him under a false promise of marriage; the charge was dropped when police learned the woman was already married, only for him to be arrested a second time weeks later on an adultery charge. He spent about 16 hours in jail across both arrests, and both charges were eventually dismissed, but the mugshot itself has endured as one of the most famous in pop culture history.
