It was Brian Epstein, the band’s manager, who brought painting materials to the hotel to try to keep them entertained, setting out a large 30in by 40in canvas and placing a lamp in the middle.
The empty circle left by the lamp was later used for their signatures.
All four had different styles, with Starr’s effort, in the bottom-left corner, appearing small and cartoonish while Harrison’s, in the bottom right, seemed darker and sprawling, after he had used “angrier-looking” brush-strokes, according to experts.
At the top, Lennon constructed a Spanish theme, while many thought they could see female reproduction parts in McCartney’s psychedelic contribution at the top right of the painting.
Both Lennon and McCartney worked primarily in acrylic, Christie’s noted, while Harrison and Starr relied more on watercolour.
Totally absorbed
Robert Whitaker, the tour photographer, said the four were totally absorbed by the project, and were keen to get back to the painting after their concerts.
“Absolutely the best period I ever witnessed among The Beatles,” Whitaker is reported as saying.
“I never saw them calmer, more contented than at this time… They’d stop, go and do a concert, and then it was, ‘Let’s go back to the picture.’
“They never discussed what they were painting. It evolved naturally.”
The finished work was originally sold at a charity auction, where it was bought by Tetsusaburo Shimoyama, the president of the Japanese Beatles Fan Club.
It remained in Japan for 46 years before it was bought by a private collector in New York in 2012 and has recently come up for auction again.
Bidding war
Although the painting was originally valued at £470,000 by Christie’s, it sparked a bidding war, eventually selling to an undisclosed buyer who paid $1.74 million (£1.38 million).
“I think it is really reflective of those 100 hours that they spent together… Probably one of the last times to sit together, to reflect, to not have schedules that required them anywhere else but Budokan for their concerts,” Miss Rogers added.
“And maybe, at the same time, it was a release during this lockdown. Just this great creative outlet for them.”
The Japanese concerts were some of the last The Beatles would perform, with their final gig taking place in San Francisco the month after.
