Green Apple
Photo of John Lennon, Mick Jagger and Paul’s girlfriend, Maggie McGivern.
The inspiration behind the Beatles’ Apple Corps was this painting by René Magritte. This 1967 photo of John Lennon, Mick Jagger and a woman in Paul’s living room in Cavendish Avenue, is the first time I’ve seen the painting in colour. It confirms that the Apple is green, that the table is somewhat nut coloured and the background is brownish. Something like this:
B/W photo colourised
The photo was taken with Lizzie Bravo‘s camera. Here’s the story from Lizzie: “(I) was outside waiting for John, as usual. That’s Mick Jagger, and there’s a young lady there too. Terry Doran was there also, and George arrived as Stu (Kendell) was leaving. Terry took the photos of Stuart and the three guys (John, Paul and Mick), but Stu only has one, which he gave me in high definition. His whole story, beautifully told to me in detail several times, is in my book.”
Lizzie Bravo’s book has yet to be published.
Here’s the only photo I had previously seen:
Martha, Paul and the painting
Paul still owns the painting. Here’s the accompanying photo of Paul from the same occasion in 1967:
Put them together and you get the full scene. Note the abandoned first design of the Sgt. Pepper drum skin on Paul’s wall, John kept the one they actually used:
Composite
Hi Roger! Those two photos together look totally fab! It was Stuart's original idea, to get John and Paul together. But he didn't want to be too obvious with his picture taking, and my cheap copy of an Instamatic bought at Boots (which I still have…) only had ONE button, the one you press to take a photo, so no wide-angle lens there at all… What an amazing idea: you made Stuart's plan happen! We've had those photos for a while (he had lost them but I located copies on the Internet) but never thought of doing what you did. Well done!
Paul hasn't shaved his moustache yet, so this is presumably from before Sgt. Pepper's release.
Clever!
What is interesting is that Paul has told many times the story that he got the “Green Apple” Magritte from Robert Fraser in June 1968. But then, here it is in April / May 1967!!
“In my garden at Cavendish Avenue, which was a 100-year-old house I’d bought, Robert was a frequent visitor. One day he got hold of a Magritte he thought I’d love. Being Robert, he would just get it and bring it. I was out in the garden with some friends. I think I was filming Mary Hopkin with a film crew, just getting her to sing live in the garden, with bees and flies buzzing around, high summer. We were in the long grass, very beautiful, very country-like. We were out in the garden and Robert didn’t want to interrupt, so when we went back in the big door from the garden to the living room, there on the table he’d just propped up this little Magritte. It was of a green apple. That became the basis of the Apple logo. Across the painting Magritte had written in that beautiful handwriting of his ‘Au Revoir’. And Robert had split. I thought that was the coolest thing anyone’s ever done with me. When I saw it, I just thought: ‘Robert’. Nobody else could have done that. Of course we’d settle the bill later. He wouldn’t hit me with a bill.” – Paul McCartney
https://www.the-paulmccartney-project.com/1968/06/paul-mccartney-acquires-le-jeu-de-mourre-a-painting-by-magritte/
Seems like he acquired it in 1966, when he purchased two paintings from Magritte… https://www.the-paulmccartney-project.com/1966/04/paul-mccartney-visits-paris-to-buy-magritte-paintings/