Here’s another random paperback that I picked up at a local church sale just so I could scan it and post it here at RCN; the artist is Charles Binger, who also painted the blonde on the cover of the Perry Mason novel, The Case of the Rolling Bones (1960), which I scanned and posted back in February:

[CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE]

As luck would have it, I was easily able to locate a snapshot of the original art, which sold at La Luz de Jesus Gallery for $2,800 back in 2011:

(N.B. Since I don’t own the above artwork and am not offering it for sale, I have taken the liberty of futzing with the original JPEG to make it a bit brighter and clearer, so at this point, it may or may not accurately represent the painting.)

The file name on the exhibition site — Binger_LG_Sophia-Loren-study.jpg — identifies the subject as Sophia Loren. But please note: although the woman in the painting does sort of look like a young Sophia Loren, I have no way to verify whether it really was intended as a likeness of her or not. I’m certainly not enough of a Loren fan to know if Binger based his “study” on a particular publicity photograph of her, but if you are, feel free to post the info below.

Keywords: Blue Camellia.