Portrait of Count Nicholas, Circus Ringmaster. Oil on board, framed with brass plaque affixed. Unsigned, with notation to verso “Count Nicholas…Painted in Sarasota 1965”. Angelo Nicholas (1910-2001) joined Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey in 1927 as an usher at the age of 16. Over a long and successful career he became the ringmaster of R.B.B.B. in the mid-1950s, and later Clyde Beatty-Cole Bros., and was an Ambassador for James E. Strates Shows. He was inducted into the Circus Ring of Fame in 2016 (www.circusringoffame.org/nicholas-count). 19 ½ x 15 ¼” (sight).