PORT TOWNSEND — The Merx Mural, a Port Townsend landmark that for more than 20 years hung over the bar at the former Town Tavern on Water Street, will return to its original perch.
The painting on Nov. 26 will be rehung at its original home under the bar at what is now Water Street Brewing and Ale House.
“Since we opened the doors (May 12), everybody has been asking about it,” said the brewpub’s co-owner, Nina Law, adding she is excited about returning the painting to its “rightful place in the bar again.”
The mural featuring a reclining nude surrounded by demons will ceremoniously return to the bar at 5 p.m. on the day after Thanksgiving, said Law, who co-owns Water Street Brewing, 639 Water St., with Mark Burr and Skip Madsen.
Movie role
Besides a place Port Townsend’s history, the restored painting has a place in Hollywood history, too.
It was the backdrop of a bar scene in the 1982 blockbuster romance film, “An Officer and a Gentleman,” starring Richard Gere and Debra Winger.
Port Townsend art conservator Barbara Engstrom, who over the past two months carefully removed years of nicotine yellowing and other stains on the 5-foot by 12-foot painting, recently finished the job.
The exotic nude will be reframed, making it 6 feet by 13 feet, before it is rehung, said Engstrom.
“I don’t know anybody in town that’s seen its real color,” said Engstrom, an art conservator for 26 years who also restored large murals in Alaska and Seattle.
Rent payment
As the story goes, the mural was painted in three days during the 1970s by artist Merx, who lived upstairs from the Town Tavern, said Law.
It was painted as payment for rent, Law said.
