This print and its attached story was found in Anton's Fish & Whiskey in Waite Park, MN. Enjoy!
“Bottoms Up”
The Story Behind The Painting
It may be helpful for you to know the history of the Bottoms Up painting, it often takes the “sting” out of the subject matter, as well as provides a great story.
The painting was commissioned of Edward T. Grigware in the early 1940’s by a wealthy Denver-area oilman. Edward T. Grigware was a well-known artist, most notably in Cody, Wyoming for his “historic Cody murals” in the Latter Day Saint chapel on Wyoming Avenue. This is the only nude that Grigware ever did and is historical in that fact alone.
The Denver oilman wanted a “tasteful nude” for his den. Some say it was of his mistress, others claim that he did not know the woman who posed for the painting. In any event, this was Grigware’s rendition of a tasteful nude. The painting was originally framed by Thomas Molesworth (the maker of Molesworth western furniture of which there is presently a great “rebirth” of want). It had a pine pole frame with red velvet drapes that parted to bordello music and hung in this man’s den in Denver.
If it was of his mistress, the wife put up with more than just a painting she hated for many years. When the oilman died, his wife sold the painting to Quin Blair. The popular telling is that she sold it to the first buyer who would A: come and get the painting before her husband was in the ground, and B: would publicly display the painting in Cody, Wyoming (the home of the “model”). Quin did purchase the painting on very short notice, and it hung originally in the Teepee Tap Room of the original Buffalo Bill Village resort. This would have had it on Main Street, about where the great sign is today. It was sufficient embarrassment to the model to cause her to move shortly after its return to Cody to Palm Springs, California. To the best of our knowledge she still lives in Palm Springs and would be in her mid/late 70’s today.
In 1972 with the opening of the Holiday Inn, the painting was moved to its present location -- The Bottoms Up Lounge. Holiday Inn granted a specific dispensation to Quin allowing him to display the painting due to its historic nature and to avoid any conflict of subject matter. The dispensation is still in effect today. Over the years the painting has been superimposed on coffee mugs, beer steins, shot glasses, T-shirts, posters, post cards and baseball hats. As it was the wife’s wish that the painting be put on “public display”, and as some of this memorabilia is as public as it can get, we fondly say that model or mistress -- the wife got her revenge in the “end”.
