On This Day in 1991, Miles Davis Died Days After Completing a Painting Depicting His “Imminent Demise”

From the time he burst onto the scene in the mid-1940s to the day he died, Miles Davis was as divisive as he was lauded, as unpredictable as he was pioneering, and as proud as he was troubled. The influential but erratic jazz trumpeter’s musical career began to cool after the mid-1970s, and by the following decade, Davis had begun painting with mentorship from Jo Gelbard, with whom he lived and had a romantic relationship.

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Davis already had a prolific drawing collection, which he began working on in the early 1980s. Balmain Fine Art’s Andy Clarke said of Davis’ visual art, “It wasn’t a hobby. It was almost a second career from him in the latter part of his life,” per The Independent.

Two days before his death in 1991, Gelbard helped finish what would be Davis’ last painting, which she said foreshadowed his “imminent demise.”

Miles Davis Painted a Grim Piece Days Before He Died

In late August 1991, Miles Davis went to St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica, California, for breathing difficulties from his bronchial pneumonia. Doctors told Davis they needed to intubate him to provide oxygen. According to Ian Carr’s biography of Davis, the musician “went purple with anger, had a massive stroke, and went into a coma.” Blood analysis showed Davis suffered too much damage from the stroke-causing clot and would not survive his injury. On September 28, 1991, Davis’ family allowed the doctors to take him off life support.

Carr wrote, “It was a tragic irony that Miles Davis was killed prematurely by his own anger. Miles Davis was, perhaps for the first time in his life, in the right psychological and physical condition to enjoy a relaxed, healthy, and carefree retirement, secure in the knowledge that he had given his utmost to music.”

Two days before his death, Gelbard finished Davis’ final painting. Andy Clarke told The Independent, “In Jo Gelbard’s words, the picture is full of his imminent demise. It has dark, ghostly figures and dripping blood.” Davis’ cursive signature appears with an exclamation point in red. Figures have disjointed, unsettling appearances appearing from the shadows.

Gelbard was holding Miles Davis when he died in St. John’s Hospital. Following his death, his estate attempted to claim the paintings she and Davis had created together. She won the rights to the artwork after a seven-year-long court battle.

“Yes, he was complex,” Gelbard told the New York Times in 2006. “And I don’t negate the violence. [But] there should be some forgiveness and insight into him as a human being. It’s time to say he was a genius, and thank you for the music.” 

Photo by David Redfern/Redferns