Pencil drawing. With the estate stamp and the handwritten number “115.145”, as well as with the handwritten inscription “VF” on the reverse. On firm paper (with watermark "HMP"). 75.5 x 102.5 cm. , size of sheet.
From June 9 to October 6 this year, a major exhibition at the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin celebrated Warhol's Pop Art portraits. [CH].
• The star of American Pop Art portrays an icon of world literature.
• His portraits of celebrities are among Andy Warhol's most famous works.
• Warhol based the present portrait on J. H. W. Tischbein's 1787 painting on display at the Städel Museum. He became acquainted with the painting on a visit to Frankfurt in 1980.
• Warhol rendered the motif with clear, bold lines in an almost life-size drawing.
• Intentional rather than spontaneous: The drawing does not have the fleeting quality of a swiftly jotted sketch. Instead, it results from an intensive examination of Warhol's artistic ideas.
• He would later work with the motif in large-format depictions on canvas and a famous series of serigraphs.
• In 2019, the New York Academy of Art presented an exhibition of his drawings entitled “Andy Warhol: By Hand,” which drew increased attention to the medium.
LITERATURE: Jörg Schellmann (ed.), Andy Warhol. Unique, Munich 2014, p. 64 (illustrated).
