The courtroom artist covering the trial has said they are ‘now like buddies’ after an image of them sketching each other went viral.
Dubbed the ‘Holbein of ‘, Jane Rosenberg, Sexkontakte of New York, has spent 40 years covering the courts – including the and trials – and is considered among the best in the business.
Now employed by news agency Reuters, Rosenberg is tasked with being the public’s eyes in US federal courts, including the one where the Maxwell trial is taking place, where cameras are still prohibited.
In a matter of minutes, she can create a scene full of atmosphere, capturing the expressions, clothing and gestures of major players in the case.
The courtroom artist tasked with sketching the Ghislaine Maxwell trial has told how she and the defendant are ‘now like buddies’.Artist Jane Rosenberg was thrust into the spotlight when Maxwell turned around and began sketching her, pictured, while she was sketching
Dubbed the ‘Holbein of crime’, Jane Rosenberg, above, has spent 40 years covering the courts – including the R.Kelly and Harvey Weinstein trials – and is considered the best in the business
Speaking to , the sketch artist explained she leaves home every day before dawn in order to secure a prime seat in the courtroom, ready for Maxwell to enter the courtroom at about 8.30am.
She and the other artists then have roughly seven seconds to capture Maxwell from the front, before she takes her seat and faces the judge, The Times reported.
However Rosenberg, who studied art at the University of Buffalo, has built up something of a unique rapport with Maxwell and ‘went viral’ when the defendant started sketching her, while she was sketching.
Maxwell even waves at Rosenberg when she arrives in court.
‘It’s been wonderful for me,’ Rosenberg said. ‘I’m so happy, I want to keep it going. I need to see her face.’ In one pre-trial hearing, Maxwell even spoke to Rosenberg, saying: ‘Long day, isn’t it?’
Rosenberg first sketched Maxwell last summer, when she appeared via video link at a bail hearing.
‘She had her hair pulled back, she didn’t look so great,’ Rosenberg said.’I think she looks not so bad now. Her hair’s fluffy and shiny, she’s all happy and smiley and kissy with her lawyers.’
Rosenberg first sketched Maxwell last summer, when she appeared via video link at a bail hearing, above, and said she ‘didn’t look so great’
Now Maxwell ‘looks not so bad’, Rosenberg said, and is ‘kissy’ with her lawyers.Above, Rosenberg’s sketch of Maxwell and defense attorney Jeffrey Pagliuca in court yesterday
Rosenberg, who began courtroom sketching when she was in a tough financial position and is now world renowned, can pull together an image in a matter of seconds, drawing with broad strokes before filling in the detail.
Yesterday the trial heard how was once in a relationship with a blonde Norwegian heiress who also dated .
The pedophile was seeing Celina Midelfart in the mid 1990s around the same time he was dating other women, it was claimed.
Midelfart is the heir to her family’s cosmetics fortune and flight logs show she took at least 13 trips on Epstein’s private jet.
The claim was made by one of Maxwell’s lawyers during cross examination of Epstein’s former pilot on day eight of the trial of Maxwell, who denies recruiting and trafficking underage girls for Epstein.
Pilot Dave Rodgers testified that Maxwell and Epstein were initially dating but later broke up.
Rosenberg sketched film producer Harvey Weinstein leans on his walker in Criminal Court on the first day of his sexual assault trial
R.Kelly sits with his attorneys Nicole Blank Becker and Thomas Farinella during his sex abuse trial at Brooklyn’s Federal District Court, in another sketch by Rosenberg
Rodgers took the jury through flight logs of Epstein’s private plane, infamously known as the Lolita Express.
Maxwell was on many of those flights, sometimes with Virginia Roberts, who has pursued criminal and civil actions against both Epstein and Maxwell.
He said he flew Roberts a total of 32 times in the early 2000s.He also claimed he flew four flights with Maxwell accuser Jane on board.
Prosecutors read off flights from the log book that included trips to Spain and Morocco in 2001 where Roberts was on board.
Lawyer Christian Everdell asked Rodgers about a number of women who Epstein was dating in the 1990s and 2000s.
It appeared to be an attempt to put distance between Maxwell and Epstein as prosecutors have said they were in a relationship.
The trial continues.