Bob Dylan painting from his Woodstock years up for auction

One lucky Bob Dylan fan with money to spare is about to score the ultimate piece for their collection.

A rare painting by the folk music legend, whose life is the subject of an upcoming biopic, has gone up for auction after he created the piece during his Woodstock years, around 1968, according to RR Auction.

With a starting bid of $66,550, the auction runs until May 23 and is expected to fetch six figures.

Another painting from the era by Dylan, 82, recently sold for $100,000 at auction after he gifted it to his late manager Albert Grossman.

The piece up for auction at RR is on a 24.5 x 30″ canvas, featuring a large outline of a bull, filled with abstract animals, music notes, bowties and other shapes.

At the top of the painting is a red figure donning a hat that resembles Dylan’s style from that era. 

Dylan gave the painting to Woodstock resident Sandy LePanto in exchange for making him an astrology chart.

‘Sandy was not only one of the most beautiful women in Woodstock at a time when there were many; she was a mystic, a channeler, a reader of stars, and maker of astrology charts for her friends,’ wrote Anne-Margaret Daniel in Hot Press.

Sandy’s friend Shelby Scherman Willer recalled, ‘Although Dylan is technically a Gemini, he was born in the month of May, so with his early understanding of astrology it is my opinion that he may have thought himself to be a Taurus – the Bull represented in the painting.’ 

The Nobel Prize winner’s autograph is faintly visible on the back of the painting, along with doodles of music notes.

Although the painting is unvarnished and has experienced some wear over the years, it has already received 10 bids as of Sunday.

The piece remained in Sandy’s family over the years and was recently rediscovered as part of her ex-husband Anthony LePanto’s estate.  

In addition to his seminal music, Dylan is an established visual artist, showing his work in major art galleries around the world and releasing multiple books of his painting and drawings.

Dylan’s first painting to be shown to the public was the cover of The Band’s 1968 album Music from Big Pink.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer also painted the covers of his own albums Self Portrait (1970) and Planet Waves (1974). 

The auction comes as Timothée Chalamet embodies Dylan while filming the biopic A Complete Unknown in New Jersey.   

Based on Elijah Wald’s 2015 book Dylan Goes Electric!, the movie follows Dylan as a 19-year-old arriving in 1961 New York City.

Shedding light on his relationship with his hero Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy) and other folk music legends, A Complete Unknown charts his rise to fame and the controversy around his musical shift.

The film also stars Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez, Elle Fanning as Sylvie Russo, Edward Norton as Pete Seeger and Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash.

Chalamet was cast as Dylan back in 2020, when it was announced that James Mangold would direct Jay Cocks’ script, which he re-wrote.

Filming began last month after the COVID-19 pandemic and the SAG-AFTRA strike pushed production from summer 2023.