Ludwig Bemelmans is closely associated with the Carlyle hotel, thanks to the bespoke murals he painted in the 1940s at the bar that still bears his name.
But decades before, upon his arrival in New York from Austria, in 1914, he had an entirely different relationship with another grand New York hotel. As a 16-year-old immigrant from a family of hoteliers, Bemelmans was a bellhop at the Ritz-Carlton on Madison Avenue at 46th Street. He rose through the ranks to become an assistant catering manager before quitting to become a full-time artist, achieving stardom with the 1939 publication of Madeline.
