One of America's greatest modern artists who became a recluse after denouncing a Martin Scorsese film based on his own life 25 years ago has unveiled an incredible treasure trove of paintings in his tumble-down Philadelphia home.

In an unprecedented move, Chuck Connelly, 60, opened his doors to DailyMail.com to reveal a breathtaking body of work that promises to relaunch a career that he himself destroyed in the 1980s.

Despite selling more than a million dollars of art in 1980s New York, having it displayed in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum and catching the eye of the once great art dealing powerhouse Charles Saatchi, Connelly self-destructed in spectacular fashion.

Once held in the same breath as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Julian Schnabel and Jeff Koons - Connelly's fiery temperament, made worse by a severe drink problem, ruined his relationship with every major gallery owner in the city - and left him no choice but to cut ties and turn inwards.

Chuck Connelly, 60, moved out to Philadelphia after cutting all ties with the New York art scene in the 1990s

Holed up alone in the rambling Victorian home, he has painted pretty much every day for the last 15 years and converted the rooms into storage space for his hundreds of paintings

His sold over a million dollars of art in the 1980s and was the subject of a Martin Scorsese film called New York Stories: Life Lesson in which he was played by actor Nick Nolte. Upon release of the film he publicly panned it

Chuck Connelly has been described as Van Gogh reincarnate, America's greatest modern artist and his own worst enemy. He got sober five years ago and the art world has started to take notice again

Controversial: Nick Nolte starred in Martin Scorsese's 1989 film New York Stories: Life Lesson' - however Chuck was not happy with the depiction of the character based on himself

A lifeline came in the form of film director Martin Scorsese who swooped in to make a 1989 film based on Connelly's life, called New York Stories: Life Lesson' and starring Nick Nolte as Chuck Connelly.

Famously, George Rush from the New York Post called Connelly at home once filming had finished and asked him his thoughts.

'I told him I thought it was cliched, mundane and no Raging Bull', said Connelly.

The next day the Post ran his response across the top of Page Six - serving as the final nail in Connelly's coffin.

His star had crashed and burned. He stayed on in New York for another decade selling fewer and fewer paintings until he could no longer afford the rent hike on his Tribeca studio.

He moved out to a rambling Victorian detached Philadelphia house and spent the following decade painting and drinking heavily. His wife divorced him and his friends staged an intervention in 2010 and carted him off to rehab amid fears he would kill himself.

In spite of the drama, Connelly, it turns out, continued painting with an obsessive fervor - to the point where he converted almost every room into wooden rack storage for over 3,000 canvasses.

'I'm hoping people will now look at what I've been doing alone here for the last 15 years and appreciate that it's not been about the money or the fame - it's about the art and painting because I have to paint

Chuck Connelly as a young and middle-aged man. Regardless of the ups and downs in his career, the breathtaking body of work inside his home is testament to the fact that he never once stopped painting

Inside the house which Connelly shares with his paint-specked cat Fluffy, every inch of wall space is taken up by paintings, the hallways made narrow by canvasses stacked against each other like paving slabs in a mason's yard.

Referring to the find, senior fine art consultant Gene Seidman, from New York's Martin Lawrence Galleries - home to works by Picasso, Miro, Chagall and Warhol - said: 'Chuck Connelly's a force to be reckoned with. His subject matter matters - he's light and dark simultaneously'.

Much to do with Connelly's frustration with the art world back in the late 1980s, early 1990s was the moving away from technique and craftsmanship and towards conceptualized art.

Now he feels the tide is turning.

'It got to the point where art had to be given a spin, a branding. It had to have a political agenda. It was more about fashion or advertising than it was about art and it was then that I had to get out', Connelly said.

The Battle: In 1985 British art dealer and advertising mogul Charles Saatchi bought this giant 228" x 180" Connelly painting called The Battle for $30,000. Months later he walked into Connelly's New York studio, told him he was opening a museum and wanted him in the premiere show alongside Jeff Koons and Ross Bleckner

'Saatchi spent $30,000 on one of my paintings in 1985 but then put it up for sale at $5,000 almost immediately after I refused to bow down to him when he waltzed into my gallery.

'He had so much money that he was able to put so-called artists on pedestals and convince the world they had something special - that what they were doing was art.

'It's like the Emperor's new clothes but now people are beginning to get wise. They are crying out for a return to the human touch, for real craftsmanship and talent.

'I want people to look at what I've been doing alone here for the last twenty five years and appreciate that it's not been about the money or the fame - it's about the art and painting because I have to paint.

'Look at these paintings - this is my story and I want the world to see it.'

Animals in the Street, 2015: This huge 9ft by 5ft canvas hangs in Connelly's Philadelphia bedroom on the wall at the foot of his bed. It is a nod to his time living in New York in the 1980s



