Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Rolf Harris's Portrait of the Queen
Australian expat Rolf Harris, now based in the United Kingdom caused a bit of a stir with his portrait of the Queen. The entertainer briefly made the "wobble board" famous and more recently hosted the "Animal Hospital" television program in Britain, but has never been known as any kind of academic artist.. a cartoonist, sure.. but probably not someone that you would expect to get to paint the Queen of England.
I think he did reasonably well, even if the big toothy smile doesn't look quite right. It's no Mona Lisa smile but is probably better than most British critics are saying about it. I would like to see someone like Georg Baselitz paint the queen. Lucian Freud has also painted her.
Rolf shows off Queen's portrait
"The portrait, commissioned to mark the monarch's 80th birthday next year, is said to be an "impressionistic", rather than a "photographic", representation. "I'm not making any claims that this is the greatest painting in the world," said Harris, who trained as an artist, "I've done the best I can." BBC
>> General Art News ¶ 6:23 PM
Australian expat Rolf Harris, now based in the United Kingdom caused a bit of a stir with his portrait of the Queen. The entertainer briefly made the "wobble board" famous and more recently hosted the "Animal Hospital" television program in Britain, but has never been known as any kind of academic artist.. a cartoonist, sure.. but probably not someone that you would expect to get to paint the Queen of England.I think he did reasonably well, even if the big toothy smile doesn't look quite right. It's no Mona Lisa smile but is probably better than most British critics are saying about it. I would like to see someone like Georg Baselitz paint the queen. Lucian Freud has also painted her.
Rolf shows off Queen's portrait
"The portrait, commissioned to mark the monarch's 80th birthday next year, is said to be an "impressionistic", rather than a "photographic", representation. "I'm not making any claims that this is the greatest painting in the world," said Harris, who trained as an artist, "I've done the best I can." BBC
>> General Art News ¶ 6:23 PM
I love it when commercial artists try to gain respectability in fine art with amateur representational portraits...looks like the queen, but then again that photo he was copying from probably did most of the work...
It's ok to take artistic liberties if the teeth start to look like dentures rolf!
It's ok to take artistic liberties if the teeth start to look like dentures rolf!
I think his only problem was that he was trying paint the queen of England rather than just create a painting. It's an average portrait painting, probably very average, and the only reason it was talked about so much was because, it is a painting of the queen!
If the Queen wanted an actual likeness, she should of asked Rolf to take her photo, but she didnt, Rolf painted her, and it's his version of the woman in paint.
One of the worst jobs in the world that I could think of is to be a portrait painter, and one of the sitters that I would least like to paint would be the Queen!
If the Queen wanted an actual likeness, she should of asked Rolf to take her photo, but she didnt, Rolf painted her, and it's his version of the woman in paint.
One of the worst jobs in the world that I could think of is to be a portrait painter, and one of the sitters that I would least like to paint would be the Queen!
# posted by 
: 2:37 AM
: 2:37 AM
i would seriously like to see any of you critics paint a better picture. i peronally love the painting and as a person in their 20's found it changed my opinion of the queen. Rolf painting her has made younger people realise that the queen is a normal person who likes to have a laugh. I doubt any of you critics will ever have a fan base like rolf harris has or ever have half his talent!
I didn't know about this portrait until I saw a short documentary of Rolf and the Queen on a recent Qantas flight. If you think he just copied from a photo, think again and watch the doc. You get to see him and her interact as he creates the work from start to finish...a great portrait for the history books...good on you Rolf & Liz.
# posted by : 6:00 PM
: 6:00 PM
'but has never been known as any kind of academic artist..' I don't think you know what you're talking about...
# posted by : 5:22 AM
: 5:22 AM
Ok anon, replace "academic artist" with "fine artist".
The point was that the queen is usually painted by traditional painters. Not someone that is better known for caricatures.
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The point was that the queen is usually painted by traditional painters. Not someone that is better known for caricatures.
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