As the 2026 Winter Olympics come to a close in Italy and France prepares to host the 2030 Winter Games, my thoughts turn to Beauford's paintings of Jean-Claude Killy.
In 2014, Les Amis posted about an abstract work entitled Jean-Claude Killy that Beauford painted in 1962.
(1962) Gouache on paper
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Courtesy of the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York, NY
Killy was featured in Paris Match magazine in January of that year. He subsequently broke his leg and was unable to compete in the 1962 World Cup competition.
Six years later, he made Olympic history when he won the "Triple Crown" of alpine skiing by taking the gold in the downhill, giant slalom, and slalom competitions.
Beauford's 1968 portrait of Killy was inspired this success.
(1968) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Courtesy of the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York, NY
He referenced two press images of the athlete to create this work—one from the cover of Historia Magazine and the other from a photo of Killy in mid-air during a ski run at the Grenoble games.
There is no mention of Killy in the biography entitled Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney by David Leeming.
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