PORTRAITS TELL A TALE OF SUCCESS.(LIFE & LEISURE)

Byline: EILEEN DASPIN Wall Street Journal

For artist Robert Cenedella, it was a portrait worth its weight in foie gras. In exchange for an oil painting of Le Cirque's dining room featuring 150 famous patrons packed into the equally famous New York restaurant Cenedella would receive a power banquette of his very own to sketch from, all the Le Cirque meals he could eat, and a modest fee.

It took two long years, and much tinkering (the newly grown beard of Marvin Shenken, publisher of Wine Spectator magazine, was a last-minute addition), but the artist's efforts paid off handsomely. Since its unveiling this spring, ``Le Cirque: The First Generation'' has generated publicity and sales. Twenty patrons including composer Cy Coleman have paid $1,200 for a limited-edition serigraph, he says. Another 50 have ordered the deluxe $2,200 edition, in which the owner can have his or her own mug inked in with the rest of the crowd. Six people have ordered portraits from …