Mistresses, farts and firings: Secrets of NYCs most famous murals revealed

Behind some of the city’s most beautiful murals, there are ugly truths and sordid stories.A newly reissued book spotlights 32 stunning, large-scale paintings that lend beauty to everyday facets of city life — from office building lobbies to transit stations and public restrooms — and the fascinating stories behind them.“It’s probably the greatest collection of popular art in the world … the breadth, the variety, the expertise,” Glenn Palmer-Smith, the author of “Murals of New York City: The Best of New York’s Public Paintings from Bemelmans to Parrish” (Rizzoli, out now), told The Post.The 83-year-old, who put together the tome with photographer Joshua McHugh, is both an art scholar and artist himself.He worked on restoring the famous murals at Bemelmans Bar and Cafe Carlyle in the Hotel Carlyle, and he and his son, Austin, paint their own murals out of a space in Harlem, Palmer-Smith Studio.Here, he shares five murals and the surprising stories behind them.Look closely at the ceiling of the Neoclassical New York County Supreme Courthouse.

Instead of a Roman holding a spear, there’s a naked blond lady with a mirror.The woman who posed for the painting was Betty Compton, a Ziegfeld Follies showgirl and the mistress of NYC mayor Jimmy Walker, who served the city from 1926 to 1931 — a wry touch added by Italian artist Attilio Pusterla“He took some artistic license,” Palmer-Smith said.

“That’s the beauty of murals.Nobody is going to get up there and paint it over.”Walker was charged with taking more than a million dollars in bribes, resigned, ditched his wife and set sail for Europe with Betty.

He was “New York’s most colorful mayor ever,” writes Palmer-Smith.NYS Supreme Court, 60 Centre St.In 1931, Michigan-native Ezra Winter spent six months creating “Quest for the Fountain of Eternal Youth” to hang in the theater’s stairway.

But the painting was harshly criticized and Winter, who was desperate to be taken seriously as...