Roseman has written in his Journal a commentary addressed to Bamfords Auctioneers, Derby, England, and LiveAuctioneers, which are publishing on their websites an image of a painting by the artist without his permission and with the false title "A Pair of Clowns." Roseman holds the copyright to his painting. The artist has affixed a notice on the image of his painting seen here.

     Pissarro evokes a pause from daily chores in his painting Two Women Chatting by the Sea, St. Thomas, 1856. The two women in the title are Afro-Caribbean islanders who have stopped to speak together on a path by the calm sea. The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., conserves the painting by the artist born and raised on the island in the West Indies. The descriptive title of Winslow Homer's charcoal drawing Two Women and a Child at the Rail, Overlooking the Beach at Tynemouth serves the work well. The drawing in the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, New York, is from the artist's first trip to England in 1881. Gauguin's Two Breton Girls by the Sea was painted during the artist's sojourn in Brittany in 1889. Referring to 'two Breton girls' and not 'a pair of Breton girls' is in keeping with the precedent for titling works of Western art. The painting is conserved in the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo.

     From Delacroix's journey to Tangier in 1832 is the watercolor Two Women at a Fountain in the collection of the Louvre Museum, Paris. Manet's pastel Two Women Drinking Beer, 1878, in the Burrell Collection, Glasgow, is an intimate composition of two women at a table in a Parisian café. John Singer Sargent's affinity for French Impressionism is seen in Two Girls with Parasols at Fladbury. The painting in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, is from the artist's summer in England in 1889. Three centuries before in Italy, Agostino Carracci drew in pen and brown ink Landscape with Two Washerwomen, c.1580's, a pastoral scene in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

     The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., conserves Fra Bartolommeo's pen and brown ink drawing Two Friars on a Hillside. The two friars in their hooded cowls ascend a high hill in the countryside. Fra Bartolommeo, (1472-1517), a Florentine by birth, was a member of the Dominican Order, which as with the Franciscan Order began in the early thirteenth century. Dominican and Franciscan friars sought contact with society for ministering to the people whereas those who entered the older Monastic Orders sought a contemplative life behind monastery walls.

     From the High Renaissance in Italy are Michelangelo's pen and ink drawing Two Standing Male Figures, Teylers Museum, Haarlem; and Raphael's Two Shepherds, a drawing in pen and ink in the Musée Bonnat, Bayonne. From the Baroque Age, Guercino's Two Men in Conversation, drawn in pen and brown ink, c.1630, Teylers Museum, is, as the title states, a depiction of two men in conversation.

     Rembrandt's drawings of domestic life in Holland include Two Women teaching a Child to Walk. The intimate, red chalk drawing, c.1635-1637, is in the British Museum. It would have been inappropriate to give the drawing the title "A Pair of Women teaching a Child to Walk.''

     Fifteenth-century Florence nurtured the great tradition devoted to draughtsmanship that flourished in the Italian Renaissance. The Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe, Uffizi, Florence, conserves Domenico Ghirlandaio's pen and ink drawing Two Female Figures, c.1485. The fine crosshatching in rendering the folds of the women's garments give fluency to the compositional drawing for the marvelous fresco cycle by Ghirlandaio in the Santa Maria Novella church in Florence.

     The Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna, conserves Raphael's red chalk drawing from 1514 entitled Two kneeling Women and a Child. The artist made drawings in preparation for his celebrated frescoes in the Vatican. With chiaroscuro modeling, Raphael renders the young woman kneeling in the foreground of the drawing. The woman behind her turns and gazes into distant space while the child by her side lifts her hands in a gesture of prayer. The compositional drawing for The Fire in the Borgo, a locality near St. Peter's, is the subject of a fresco in the Stanza dell'Incendio in the Vatican.

     An awkward title for the drawing would be "A Pair of Men near a Pond in the 'Haagse Bos.' " Similarly, the artworks mentioned above by Tiepolo and Tintoretto would be mistitled "A Pair of Young Men in Roman Uniform" and "A Pair of Apostles."

     Picasso did a pencil drawing in 1925 of two dancers seated on a bench. The title of the drawing in the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, is Two Dancers. The Museum also conserves Degas' pastel drawing Two Dancers in their Dressing Room, c.1880.

     Degas's oeuvre on the ballet includes Two Dancers in Green Skirts, Two Dancers in the Wings, Two Dancers on the Stage, Two Dancers Resting, and several drawings titled Two Dancers. In paintings and drawings by Degas, ballerinas wear pink, ballet slippers with the reinforced toe for dancing on point. It is customary to refer to "a pair of ballet slippers." It would be ludicrous to refer to "a pair of ballet dancers."

     I was cordially invited by the Administration of the Paris Opéra in 1989 to draw the dance at the illustrious opera house. I drew at rehearsals in the dance studios, at dress rehearsals in the auditorium, and from the wings of the stage at performances. My choice of drawing medium for expressing movement is the graphite pencil. I drew étoiles, premier dancers, and sujets of the Paris Opéra Ballet, as well as dancers from the international companies invited to perform at the Paris Opéra. My drawings also depict members of the corps de ballet in performances as with Two Female Dancers, 1993, in the Paris Opéra Ballet's presentation of Giselle. The Romantic ballet, which had its world premiere at the Paris Opéra in 1841, was choreographed by Jean Corelli and Jules Perrot to the beautiful score by Adolphe Adam.

     Harvard University Office of the General Counsel states:

    "A Pair of Clowns" is not the title of the Roseman painting. "A Pair of Clowns" is a derogatory title for a portrait painting of two professional circus clowns. On the previous page Roseman raises questions concerning Bamfords.

     Published below is Roseman's Commentary: "Fifty Titles from Seven Centuries of Western Art." Roseman has selected fifty examples of paintings and drawings depicting a range of subjects by artists from the fifteenth to the twenty-first century.

     Roseman provides information as for artists, titles, subjects, dates, medium, museum collections, and private collections.

     I have written this Commentary to protect my artwork. I have written this Commentary to confront the auctioneers named here and to defend my two friends who gave enthusiastically of their time for my painting at the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

    Bamfords Auctioneers, Derby, England, and LiveAuctioneers publish on their websites an image of my painting that Bamfords falsely titles 'A Pair of Clowns.' That is not the title of my painting. That is the title given by Bamfords. Furthermore, due to Bamfords undervaluing the painting for its auction in September 2019, the consignor took back the work before the auction closed. Several months later the consignor sold the painting in a private sale for a higher price than the value given by Bamfords. The consignor had inherited the painting from her uncle, an amiable Englishman and an avid collector of my artwork.

     Bamfords' false title 'A Pair of Clowns' is degrading. The phrase 'a pair of . . . ' is what an auction house dealing in furniture would call items, such as 'A Pair of End Tables' or 'A Pair of Lamps' or 'A Pair of Cabinets' or 'A Pair of Bookcases' or 'A Pair of Bookends' or 'A Pair of Candlesticks' or 'A Pair of Footstools' or 'A Pair of Andirons.' But the phrase 'A Pair of . . .' is inappropriate and awkward for titles of works of art portraying two human beings, as I discuss in my Commentary.

     Titles of works of art can be general without reference to the number of persons in a composition. Sometimes, two, three, or several figures are identified with names in the title, such as with historic, religious, or mythological subject matter. Other times titles give the names of the individuals as in portrait paintings and drawings. However, for titles that specify two persons in a composition, it is correct, knowledgeable, and scholarly to use the word 'two.'

     There is a long, established precedent set by artists, art historians, and museum curators for titling works of art with the word 'two' for depictions of two people in a composition.

     Titles of works of art are important for the identity and aesthetic value of a painting, drawing, print, or sculpture, as with titles of literary works, plays, and musical compositions. Authors, playwrights, and composers are decisive in selecting titles for their works. That is also true of artists.

     My painting which Bamfords and LiveAuctioneers mistitle "A Pair of Clowns'' is not a depiction of two guys who put on costumes and clown makeup for a costume party or for Mardi Gras or for any other such occasion. The two men in my painting are not models who dressed up as clowns to pose for an artist.

    "A Pair of Clowns'' is a degrading title and an insult to the two professional circus clowns whose portraits I painted at the Circus. Both are graduates of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College. Founded by the President of the Circus and CEO Irvin Feld, the College opened in 1968 in Venice, Florida, for teaching circus and clowning skills. I am deeply grateful to the two talented young members of the celebrated troupe of circus clowns for expressing appreciation for my work and giving generously of their time, and for their friendship when I began drawing and painting at the Circus in 1973.

     I am not providing here the correct title - my title of my painting - for the benefit of Bamfords Auctioneers and LiveAuctioneers. I do provide here evidence of the use of the word 'two' in a selection of fifty titles from the fifteenth to the twenty-first centuries.

     Leonardo da Vinci made preparatory drawings for the Last Supper. The monumental fresco which dates from the mid-1490's is in the refectory of the Dominican friary Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan. Leonardo's drawing in red chalk Two Figures seated in Conversation depicts a young man seated on a bench and turned to speak with his companion. The drawing is in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle.

     From the High Renaissance is the drawing by Michelangelo, Two Men holding Spears, in the collection of the British Museum. The two standing, male nudes, drawn in red chalk, are looking up and holding aloft long spears that converge to form an apex in the composition. 

     Drawing is considered the foundation of the visual arts. Giorgio Vasari, sixteenth-century painter, architect of the Uffizi Gallery, and biographer of Lives of the Artists, first published in 1550, was an avid collector of drawings. In his Preface to the Lives, Vasari affirms that drawing, "disegno," is the animating principle of the creative process.[1]

     Having devoted a major part of my work to drawing, I am sincerely appreciative to the Director General of the Vatican Museum, Professor Carlo Pietrangeli, who acquired in 1987 four drawings from my oeuvre on the Monastic Life.

     The acquisition includes Two Benedictine Monks at Compline, 1984, Archabbey of St. Ottilien, where I was invited by Archabbot Notker Wolf to draw on the occasion of the monastery's 100th anniversary. In a cordial letter to the Archabbot, the Director General of the Vatican Museum writes: "I am particularly grateful for the donation, proposed by you, of four portraits in chalk of monks of your abbey by the American painter Stanley Roseman.'' The drawing presented here depicts two Benedictine monks of different ages, each absorbed in prayer at Compline, the seventh of the canonical hours that concludes the daily round of communal prayer in choir.

     In the last decade of the Quattrocento, Dürer journeyed to Venice, where he drew a variety of subjects that include those taken from mythology, as well as from his own time and place. The Graphische Sammlung Albertina conserves the pen and ink drawing Two Venetian Ladies. Dürer rendered in detail the lady standing on the left who wears a fashionable gown with a low-cut bodice and stylishly coiffured hair. The drawing is inscribed with a monogram of the artist and the date 1495.

     In late sixteenth-century Venice, Tintoretto painted a canvas with head and shoulders portraits of two Apostles leaning towards each other as in conversation. Based on Leonardo's Last Supper, the painting by Tintoretto in the Barnes Collection, Philadelphia, is titled Two Apostles. Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, born in Venice in 1696, had a large workshop fulfilling commissions painted on a grand scale. Tiepolo's drawings include Two Young Men in Roman Uniform. Rendered in pen and bistre wash over pencil, the two young men stand side by side in the drawing conserved in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

    Art in eighteenth-century France was "strongly identified with the world of the theatre" ("profondément marqués par l'univers du theatre.")[2] Artists depicted actors, dancers, singers, musicians, and characters of the commedia dell'arte. The popular improvisational theatre originated in sixteenth-century Italy and in the following centuries assimilated into the performing arts in France. Watteau featured the players of the commedia dell'arte in a number of his paintings and drawings. In the artist's red chalk drawing Two Men Standing both figures are identified as the amorous valet Mezzetin, wearing a short cape, blowsy knickers, and wide beret. The drawing, dated c.1717, is in the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.

     It would be absurd to title drawings "A Pair of Women at a Fountain" or "A Pair of Women Drinking Beer" or "A Pair of Girls with Parasols at Fladbury" or "Landscape with a Pair of Washerwomen."

     Music is a recurring theme in Watteau's work. The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford University, conserves the artist's drawing titled Two Musicians. The composition depicts two seated figures, each playing the violin. The drawing is rendered in red and white chalks on light brown paper. Watteau was an exponent of the technique of drawing with two or three chalks, au deux crayon or au trois crayon. Drawing in two or three chalks came into prominence during the sixteenth century in France with the drawings of father and son Jean and François Clouet.[3] They were both official painters to the court of François I.

     I draw often in the medium of chalk, as with my drawings on the monastic life. I am deeply appreciative to the Keeper of Western Art at the Ashmolean Museum, Dr. Kenneth J. Garlick, whose acquisitions in the early years of my travels to monasteries were of great encouragement to me. The eminent curator acquired in 1979 my portrait of a Polish Benedictine monk Brother Abraham, 1978, Tyniec Abbey, near Krakow. The second acquisition was A Carthusiam Monk asleep in his Cell, 1982, Chartreuse de la Valsainte, Switzerland. Dr. Garlick graciously invited me and Ronald Davis, who had introduced my work to the Ashmolean, for a luncheon at Balliol College, the Keeper's alma mater. We enjoyed a very pleasant lunch with conversation centered on drawing. Dr. Garlick expressed enthusiasm for the scope of my work on the monastic life and my concentration on portraits and figures in chalks.

     A diversity of subjects and medium in drawings in the nineteenth century includes the drawing by  Géricault Two Warriors rendered in pen and ink. The depiction of the muscular, central figure with face in profile and wearing a helmet contrasts with the second figure in a tunic and wearing a Phrygian cap, a symbol of liberty. The drawing dates from c.1812-1816 and is in the collection of the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen, the city of the Gericault's birth.[4] Van Gogh painted and drew a number of compositions depicting a lone sower working in the field. The Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, conserves the artist's pencil drawing Two Sowers, c.1882. Monet drew Two Men Fishing, c.1883. The composition, with each man in a rowboat, is rendered in black crayon on scratch board, that is, paper coated with gesso. The drawing is conserved in the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

     Obviously the drawings would be mistitled as 'A Pair of Warriors' or 'A Pair of Sowers' or 'A Pair of Men Fishing.' If the drawings were so titled, questions would naturally be raised, especially by those knowledgeable in art history. Why were two persons referred to as 'a pair of . . .' instead of "two!''

    As an American artist in Paris, I was pleased to be able to include in my drawings at the Paris Opéra the American ballet Rodeo choreographed by Agnes de Mille. The celebrated ballet with a western theme was presented at the Paris Opéra by the San Francisco Ballet in 1994. I composed the drawing Two Male Dancers with swift, curvilinear pencil strokes to express the dancers in cowboy hats as they perform the same, lively dance steps and thrust their arms up and outwards to Aaron Copeland's rousing score.

     Both drawings from Rodeo were in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France exhibition Stanley Roseman - Dessins sur la Danse à l'Opéra de Paris, 1996. I am very grateful for the exhibition and publication, in French and English, announcing "a hundred magnificent drawings from the artist's oeuvre on the dance.''[5]

     Bamfords, under the directorship of James Lewis, undervalued the painting in disregard of the critical acclaim and superlative reviews of my work. The New York Times titled its review of my Circus paintings "Spirit of the Clown" with the subtitle "Paintings by Stanley Roseman glow with a shiny dignity." The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, conserves my portrait painting of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus clown George, 1976, and a portfolio of my drypoint engravings of the Circus clowns. The British Museum, London; and the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford University, also conserve my artwork. The Times, London, published a superlative review of my work on the Monastic Life.

     I was honored in 1983 as the first American artist to have a one-man exhibition of drawings at the Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna. The exhibition Stanley Roseman - Zeichnungen aus Klöstern (Drawings from the Monasteries) opened concurrently on September 6th with the exhibition of the Museum's Raphael drawings on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the Renaissance master's birth.

     Bamfords and LiveAuctioneers are publishing an image of my painting for their own commercial use and profit and are making large format images in disregard of the copyright protection due the artist.

     Additional compositions of two women include Gauguin's oil on canvas Two Tahitian Women, 1899, Metropolitan Museum, New York; Constantin Guys,' pencil, ink, and wash drawing Two Spanish Women on a Balcony, c.1845-1847, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris; Berthe Morisot's pencil drawing Two Girls Writing at a Table, c.1890, Private collection; and Toulouse-Lautrec's painting Two Waltzers at the Moulin Rouge, 1892, in the National Gallery, Prague.

     Giovanni Battista Tiepolo painted Two Men in Oriental Costume, c.1757. The oil on panel portrayal of two bearded men splendidly clothed in robes and headdresses is conserved in the National Gallery, London. Watteau's drawings of military subjects include Two Recruits, c.1715, red chalk, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven. The two recruits in military attire are carrying backpacks, belted swords, bayonets, and slung rifles over their shoulders. Watteau drew Two Soldiers, c.1709-10, red chalk, private collection. The artist is said to have drawn the two soldiers in his hometown of Valenciennes in northern France. Daumier's painting from 1848 in the Musée de Beaux-Arts, Lyon, is a depiction of two lawyers in black hats and robes and with serious expressions on their faces. The painting is titled Two Lawyers.

     Mistitling works of art is further evidenced by the following examples: "A Pair of Men in Oriental Costume'' and "A Pair of Recruits'' and "A Pair of Soldiers" and "A Pair of Lawyers.''

     My work on the Monastic Life comprises the Benedictine, Cistercian, Trappist, and Carthusian Orders, the four monastic orders of the Western Church. In 1979 Ronald Davis and I made our first sojourn at the Abbey of La Trappe, in Normandy, which gives its name to the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance, also known as the Trappist Order. We returned to the monastery through the years. Resuming my work in 2002, I again accompanied the monks to draw them at the daytime offices and at Vigils in the night. That Christmas I presented Ronald with a gift of my drawing Two Trappist Monks at Vigils, 2002.

     The Dutch landscape artist Joris van der Haagen drew Two Men near a Pond in the "Haagse Bos," a woodland north of The Hague. The Teyler Museum in Haarlem conserves the drawing rendered in black chalk, brush, black ink, and gray wash on blue paper and inscribed and dated 1662. The two men resting in the foreground near the pond have a fine view of the picturesque wood that fills the composition.

     Rubens depicted the musculature of the male figure in a number of drawings. The artist's red chalk drawing Two Male Nudes is in the collection of the Louvre. The Rodin Museum, Paris, conserves the sculptor's drawing Two Women Embracing. Rendered in pencil, watercolour, and gouache, one nude has her hair in a bun; the other is partially draped in diaphanous blue material. Both drawings would lose their intimacy with the viewer if mistitled "A Pair of Male Nudes'' or "A Pair of Women Embracing.''

     Drawings on paper prepared with a colored ground came into use in fifteenth-century Renaissance Italy. Carpaccio's Two Youths, in the British Museum, is rendered in brush and brown pigment with white heightening on blue paper. Raphael's Two Guardsmen, c.1503, in silverpoint on gray grounded paper, is conserved in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Blue paper was favored by Dutch draughtsmen in the seventeenth century, including Joris van der Haagen mentioned above and Sir Peter Lely, (born Pieter van der Faes), portrait painter at the English court. His drawing Two Heralds in black and white chalk on blue paper is in the collection of the Albertina. Again, it is obvious that the phrase "A Pair of. . .'' would sound inappropriate and contradict centuries of titling works of art.

     I reiterate that Bamfords Auctioneers and LiveActioneers are publishing an image of my portrait painting with the false title "A Pair of Clowns.'' That is not my title of my painting. That is the title given by Bamfords and is an insult to my work at the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus and to the international critical acclaim for my oeuvre on the circus clowns. The false title is an insult to the two talented professional circus clowns who gave generously of their time for my painting. Furthermore, the degrading title "A Pair of Clowns'' is an insult to the world-famous Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus and to the illustrious American circus tradition.

     My ecumenical work on the monastic life includes communities of monks and nuns of the Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Lutheran faiths. I am an artist of the Jewish faith. Two Benedictine Monks at Lauds, 1999, is from my sojourn at the Anglican Benedictine Abbey of Elmore, in Berkshire.

     I drew the two monks at Lauds in black, white, and bistre chalks on gray paper. The monk in the foreground stands with head inclined in a humble gesture of prayer. In contrast, the taller, younger monk stands erect facing the altar. I composed the drawing to express the spirituality of two men of different ages, each absorbed in prayer at the Divine Office.

     I am deeply grateful to J. Carter Brown, eminent Director of the National Gallery of Art, for his thoughtful letter, which concludes: "May I add my own warmest personal thanks for your interest in the Graphic Arts Department of the Gallery and say how very pleased we all are to acquire this fine example of your drawings."

     The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., acquired in 1981 my drawing Two Monks Bowing, 1979, black and bistre chalk on beige paper, Abbey of Solesmes, along the Sarthe River in western France. I drew the Benedictine monks when the Community gathered in choir to pray and chant the Psalms at the daytime offices and at Vigils in the night. The Abbey of Solesemes is renowned for the study and restoration of Gregorian chant, which has its origins in the singing of the Psalms in ancient Jewish liturgical worship in the Temple and the Synagogue.[6] Psalmody is the foundation of the Divine Office, which is central to the monastic life. (See the drawing on "Stanley Roseman Biography.'')

     Lauds, the first of the seven daytime offices, derives its name from the Latin 'laudes,' or 'praises.'' Psalms 148, 149, and 150 begin by praising the Lord. The three Psalms are sung by monastic communities each morning along with other selections from the Psalter.

     The drawings seen above from Rodeo are also reproduced in the art book Stanley Roseman - Drawings on the Dance at the Paris Opéra, published by Ronald Davis, 1996.