His Madonna

Recently, interesting new documentation has come to light in the form of an unpublished manuscript that Nelson Eddy wrote and titled A Will of Evil. The manuscript was entrusted to a woman named Linda, who knew Nelson in his last years. It is not outstanding prose (and certainly not Nelson’s best writing, by a country mile) but it provides interesting insight into where his head was in his last years, with compelling parallels drawn to many things that occurred in his real life relationship with Jeanette. The book is available on maceddy.com as well as Amazon. Angela and I helped Sharon edit her introductory comments — and that, for the time being, anyway, is where my remarks end.

Most compellingly for the ongoing story of Jeanette and Nelson, however, is a colored pencil drawing that Nelson did of Jeanette that also ended up in Linda’s possession. It has been published inside the book as well as a smaller version the back cover, so it could be seen in color, and very recently, Sharon published it on maceddy.com as well. Her post is available at this link.

The drawing is exquisite. It’s intimate, it’s serene; it’s absolutely beautiful. He’s not just drawing a picture of someone, he’s lovingly rendering this woman who is dearly known to him.  And it’s not a posed “draw me like one of your French girls” situation, either; her hair is wet and water droplets are dripping down her back, as though she has just stepped out of the shower. More intimacy. This is not glamorous, this is everyday real life. Her body is accurate to the last detail; the tiny wrists, the tall expanse of chest, the way her face looks without makeup…I mean, wow. The love that went into this work is leaping off the page. And look at the knowing, secretive serenity on her face, and the way he highlighted her abdomen. Nelson titled this work My Madonna…is she, perhaps, newly pregnant here? Was that the reason for the drawing? You can see his title on the left edge, along with his NE signature.

For those of you who still “need to see concrete proof” that these people were involved…….welp. Here ya go.

For those of you who still contend that this story is made up, just screw off, really. Get some new lines.

Thanks to those involved in getting this published. It’s important.

I elected, as Sharon did, to put the drawing behind a link rather than pasting it into the body of a blog post. The historical significance of this piece of ironclad, “smoking gun” evidence cannot be denied and the reverence with which this gorgeous work of art was created is totally obvious, but even so, it’s a nude.

Nelson’s drawing of his Madonna can be viewed by clicking right here.