A New Yorker Love Story

By Anatol Kovarsky

Note: Click on each image to get an enlarged view, begin navigating through the entire image gallery, and find out whether the original piece of artwork is available for sale. Learn more about buying original New Yorker art at www.newyorkerstore.com.

As Valentine’s Day approaches, I thought I’d share with our readers a real-life love story between a New Yorker artist and his wife, one that demonstrates that fairy-tale romances do still happen.

I had the recent pleasure of enjoying a three and a half hour lunch with my favorite nonagenarian, New Yorker cover artist Anatol Kovarsky, and his beautiful wife, the talented actress Lucille Patton. We dined with a nice couple who is adding an original 1966 Kovarsky New Yorker cover to their collection.

I brought color printouts of Anatol’s past New Yorker covers (39 total), and we discussed several in detail. He was quite talkative, and loved telling stories about his former art editors and the inspiration for many of his covers.

By Anatol Kovarsky

By Anatol Kovarsky

Born in Russia in the early half of the last century, Anatol discussed what it was like growing up in the former Soviet Union. Even today, in his 90s, he is intrigued by current affairs, linguistics, history, and cultural science – and how he can incorporate these subjects into his projects.

My favorite part of the lunch was when Lucille told me how she and Anatol met, at a fabulous party thrown by two young actresses in Gramercy Park in the early 1950s. She attended with her roommate at the time, a former lounge singer. “The girls who threw the party went all out,” Lucille said. “There were waiters with white gloves, trays of champagne and hors d’oeuvres. The place was packed to the gills!”
She was immediately drawn to Anatol, the gentleman with an interesting accent, so she did not hesitate to introduce herself and inform him of her latest play.

Unbeknownst to Lucille, Anatol attended the performance and waited for her in the pouring rain in the alleyway behind the theater. She almost missed him, but saw him out of the corner of her eye as she lifted the brim of her hat. From there, according to Lucille, they “closed down two nearby bars and kissed in the cab all the way home.” Fifty-six years later, they are still happily married and living on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

Here’s to finding your own valentine in a dark alleyway, or wherever the search for romance takes you!