Portrait Paintings

Artist: Eduard Matevosyan Work: Original Oil Painting, Handmade Artwork, One of a Kind Medium: Oil on Cardboard Year: 2025 Style: Portrait Art, Title: Woman in Ochre Size: 20" x 16...

In the time of my mother and the women before her in her generation line, women are not allowed to talk or have a genuine opinion on the crucial and critical matters of emergency in ...

In this piece, I've captured a blend of realism and symbolism using acrylic and lacquer, focusing on the textured depth and emotional resonance. The subject wears yellow leather glov...

"The Bohemian" is part of a new collection titled "Ode to Guardians and the Impuissant". It is a visual discourse on the frail but resilient nature of black women whom I call black h...

This detailed portrait depicts an elderly figure wearing a dark headscarf and neckerchief, rendered with careful attention to the weathered features and gentle expression that speak ...

Lebanese American artist Sally K.'s captivating floral portraits are both mesmerizing and empowering. Her pop-realistic paintings are inspired by strong, feminine women, celebrating the individuality and inherent strength of the female experience. Each painting features endless floral arrangements that frame the mysterious visages of beautiful women, creating a stunning celebration of floral abstraction and wild, fanciful coloration. Lavish in application and luxurious in composition, Sally K.'s work is inspired by pop art, culture, and fashion, resulting in a powerful, visually stunning artwork that captures the essence of femininity. This original 10-inch high and 8-inch wide acrylic and diamond dust on canvas board painting is signed on the front and back. It is unframed and requires framing for display. Convenient Los Angeles area delivery. Affordable U.S. and global shipping options are available. Provenance: Artspace Warehouse. A certificate of authenticity issued by the art gallery is included. Sally K. is an Ohio-born artist of Lebanese heritage who spent her formative years in Saudi Arabia before attending high school and college in Beirut. She graduated with distinction from the Lebanese American University of Beirut, earning a BA in Fine Arts. After moving back to the United States in 2013, Sally K. and her family eventually relocated once more to Qatar in 2019. Sally's multicultural background and diverse experiences inform her artistic vision, resulting in a unique style that blends Middle Eastern and Western influences. Sally K's work is a celebration of femininity, strength, and individuality, reflecting her own journey as a woman and artist. Her captivating portraits of contemporary women are a masterful blend of abstract expressionism and portrait painting, featuring vibrant blooms that create a dreamlike aura around her powerful subjects. Her paintings not only capture the beauty of women but also their confidence and strength, conveying a powerful femininity that inspires and empowers. With alluring, flirtatious, and demure features, Sally's portraits radiate sensuality, independence, and confidence - the very qualities that define strong women. Sally's portraits are intensely personal, as each woman she paints is an extension of her own feelings, thoughts, and experiences. Through her work, she captures the qualities that captivate her in other women - the qualities she admires and strives to gain for herself. Her paintings are a celebration of the complexities and strengths of women, conveyed through a masterful use of color, texture, and composition. Sally draws inspiration from photography, pop culture, and fashion as well as artists ranging from the pop art of Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock to the gilded florals and figures of Gustav Klimt. Her highly regarded paintings have been featured in group and solo shows in Beirut, Dubai, Italy, Switzerland, and the USA. They have been collected worldwide. Notable collectors include Jesse McCartney and Kelly Clarkson. REPRESENTATION Artspace Warehouse, Los Angeles, USA EXHIBITIONS 2024 Affordable Art Fair, New York, NY 2024 Artspace Warehouse, Los Angeles, CA 2024 Affordable Art Fair, Austin, TX 2023 Artspace Warehouse, Los Angeles, CA 2022 “Identity with a Chance of Imperfection”, Artspace Warehouse, Los Angeles, CA 2022 “Saturate Euphoria”, Artspace Warehouse, Los Angeles, CA 2021 Affordable Art Fair New York, NY 2021 “Splatters of Life”, Artspace Warehouse, Los Angeles, CA 2020 LA Art Show, CA 2020 Art Palm Springs, CA 2019 Affordable Art Fair Hong Kong 2019 Affordable Art Fair New York 2019 Artspace Warehouse, Los Angeles, CA 2018 "Colored Whipped Cream," Artspace Warehouse, Los Angeles, CA 2018 Threshold Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2018 484 North Gallery, Laguna Beach 2013 Beirut Art Beat 2009 Lebanese Artists Association 2009 Gallery Surface Libre 2008 Lebanese Painters Exhibition 2007 Café De Prague Hamra 2007 Cream Saifi Village 2007 Matignion Gallery, Horsh Tabet 2007 Drops Batroun (permanent) 2007 Cloud Nine Jemaizeh (permanent) 2007 Tribecca Monnot 2006 Art Lounge, Beirut, Lebanon 2006 MILK Jemaizeh (permanent) 2006 Gauche Caviar Jemaizeh (permanent) 2006 ESCWA Riad El Solh 2006 Tapas Jemaizeh (permanent) 2006 Zinc Achrafieh 2006 Blush Monot 2006 The Basement Jemaizeh 2005 Solo Gallery Show, Art Lounge, Beirut 2005 Zinc Achrafieh 2005 Tribecca Monot Café 2004 Paul Guiragossian...

Shipping Procedure Ships in a well-protected tube from Nigeria This work is unique, this is not a print or other type of copy. Accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity. About Ar...

Artist: James Drummond, R.S.A., F.S.A. (1816-1877) Title: Sans titre (1881) Year: 1881 Medium: Oil on canvas Size: 37 x 29 inches Inscription: Hand signed and dated, recto Provenance...

Self-portrait of the painter with beret and brush in hand, 1930s Period: Circa 1930s Italian school. Technique: Oil on wooden panel Frame: Painted wooden frame, coeval Dimensions: ...

Blake's painting imagines a quiet moment about the Sultana, a steamboat carrying Union POWs home at the end of the Civil War. Hours later, the vessel exploded, killing over a thousan...

"Boy with Calendula" by Anne Siems, is a captivating figurative-narrative painting featuring a young child and a rabbit, with an 18th century feel. He is floating and surrounded by s...

Portrait Of Sir James Hamlyn (1735-1811), MP for Carmarthen, Sheriff of Devon, 18th Century follower of Sir Joshua REYNOLDS (1723-1792) Large 18th Century portrait of Sir James Ham...

Antonin MERCIE (1845-1916) French Belle Époque Portrait A stylish portrait of a fashionable young woman dating to the Belle Époque period. Signe...

Whispering Winds Di Li Feng, Chinese (1958) Date: 1985 Oil on Canvas, signed verso Size: 47 x 69 in. (119.38 x 175.26 cm)

Michelle Jader's "Untangle" is an original, handmade oil painting on 3 acrylic panels that depicts the flowing motion of a woman entangled in her own hair.

As an Antique sculpture, Dario Moschetta creates strength and movement in this artwork. Moreover, experimental technique brings an unique texture to the figure. Hair are waving alon...

Quang Ho's "Jack of All Trades" (2009) is a portrait of a seated male model with a small sailboat replica in the background. About the artist: Quang Ho was born on April 30, 1963, ...

Shipping Procedure FREE Shipping Worldwide Ships in a well-protected tube from Nigeria This work is unique, not a print or other type of copy. Accompanied by a Certificate of Authent...

oil on canvas without frame One point of restoration

A striking portrait of a handsome young man named 'Freddy' by artist Pauline Plummer (b.1933). Unsigned. Titled verso. On canvas on stretchers.

Derek Harrison's (US based) "Sam" is an oil painting that depicts a nude female model with pink hair and shaved sides. "Sam" is a secondary market work with one previous owner. Artist Biography: Derek Harrison has worked as an artist almost all of his life. It all began with experimental art in various mediums. These ranged from watercolor to spray paint, tattooing, illustration and eventually to oil painting. A full spectrum of mediums experimented with as an artist beginning to learn his craft. In early 2010 Derek began taking workshops with very accomplished painters. This exposure opened his eyes and mind to what the possibilities are in the fine art world. After a very short amount of time, Derek began to take an extreme interest in classical/traditional art. This interest would lead him to study at the Los Angeles Academy of Figurative Art. After formal training, many classes and workshops outside of the school and a very important session of weekly classes with artist Jeremy Lipking, Derek Harrison has become one of the most exciting new talents in the field of representational painting. He has shown in galleries all over California and as distant as Amsterdam. His paintings sit in many collections across the country including musician Richie Sambora...

This small-format acrylic portrait uses emoji-like features to reinterpret ancestral identity through simplified digital codes. Part of the Ancestor Clones group within the broader ...

The suri tribe, an agro-pastoral people, resides in the west Omo zone of Ethiopia's Southern Nations and Peoples' region, known for their unique traditions, practices, including lip ...

Shipping Procedure FREE Shipping Worldwide Ships in a well-protected tube. This work is unique, not a print or other type of copy. Accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity. Blac...

Lisa Fricker's "Dark Spirit" is an original, handmade oil painting that depicts a close up portrait of a man on a dark abstracted background. Through her portrait and figure paintin...

European Painter (19th century) - Portrait of a Gentleman. 13.5 x 10 cm without frame, 18.5 x 15.5 cm with frame. Watercolor on paper, in original 19th century frame (not signed). ...

Shipping Procedure Ships in a well-protected tube from Nigeria This work is unique, not a print or other type of copy. Accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity. About Artist Mic...

Nicolaes Maes (Dordrecht 1634 - Amsterdam 1693) circle of - Portrait of a Gentleman. 81 x 65 cm unframed, 100.5 x 83.5 cm with frame. Antique oil painting on canvas, in a carved an...

Study of man is an original artwork realized in the late 19th Century and attributed to the painter Marcello Dragonetti. Mixed colored oil paintig on canvas. Titled and signature ...

Enoch Seeman Canvas Size: 30 x 25" (76 x 62cm) Outside Frame Size: 37 x 32" (92 x 80cm) 1694-1744 He was born in Danzig, now Gdansk, Poland, around 1694. His father, also Enoch...

The Tambourine Player French School, circa 1950's-1960's signed lower front corner oil painting on board, framed framed: 18 x 16 inches board: 14 x 12 inches provenance: private coll...

Lebanese American artist Sally K.'s captivating floral portraits are both mesmerizing and empowering. Her pop-realistic paintings are inspired by strong, feminine women, celebrating the individuality and inherent strength of the female experience. Each painting features endless floral arrangements that frame the mysterious visages of beautiful women, creating a stunning celebration of floral abstraction and wild, fanciful coloration. Lavish in application and luxurious in composition, Sally K.'s work is inspired by pop art, culture, and fashion, resulting in a powerful, visually stunning artwork that captures the essence of femininity. This monochrome 47-inch high by 38-inch wide painting is created with acrylic paint with green paint accents on canvas. It is stretched, wired, and ready to hang. This floral figurative artwork is signed by the artist on the front of the artwork. The sides are a continuation of the painting and it is stretched, wired, and ready to hang. Free local Los Angeles area delivery. Convenient U.S. and global shipping is available. A certificate of authenticity issued by the art gallery is included. Sally K. is an Ohio-born artist of Lebanese heritage who spent her formative years in Saudi Arabia before attending high school and college in Beirut. She graduated with distinction from the Lebanese American University of Beirut, earning a BA in Fine Arts. After moving back to the United States in 2013, Sally K. and her family eventually relocated once more to Qatar in 2019. Sally's multicultural background and diverse experiences inform her artistic vision, resulting in a unique style that blends Middle Eastern and Western influences. Sally K's work is a celebration of femininity, strength, and individuality, reflecting her own journey as a woman and artist. Her captivating portraits of contemporary women are a masterful blend of abstract expressionism and portrait painting, featuring vibrant blooms that create a dreamlike aura around her powerful subjects. Her paintings not only capture the beauty of women but also their confidence and strength, conveying a powerful femininity that inspires and empowers. With alluring, flirtatious, and demure features, Sally's portraits radiate sensuality, independence, and confidence - the very qualities that define strong women. Sally's portraits are intensely personal, as each woman she paints is an extension of her own feelings, thoughts, and experiences. Through her work, she captures the qualities that captivate her in other women - the qualities she admires and strives to gain for herself. Her paintings are a celebration of the complexities and strengths of women, conveyed through a masterful use of color, texture, and composition. Sally K's use of occlusion, a technique where she covers the eyes of the figures, adds a layer of depth and complexity to her pop-realistic artworks. This technique creates a sense of mystery and intrigue that invites the viewer to contemplate the inner life of the subjects, while the lack of eye contact encourages a deeper emotional connection with the painting. As a result, viewers are able to engage with the piece on a more personal and intimate level, experiencing a range of emotions and reactions that are unique to them. The sense of mystery and depth allows for a more immersive and personalized experience, making Sally K's works truly captivating and thought-provoking. Sally draws inspiration from photography, pop culture, and fashion as well as artists ranging from the pop art of Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock to the gilded florals and figures of Gustav Klimt. Her highly regarded paintings have been featured in group and solo shows in Beirut, Dubai, Italy, Switzerland, and the USA. They have been collected worldwide. Notable collectors include Jesse McCartney and Kelly Clarkson. REPRESENTATION Artspace Warehouse, Los Angeles, USA EXHIBITIONS 2024 Affordable Art Fair, New York, NY 2024 Artspace Warehouse, Los Angeles, CA 2024 Affordable Art Fair, Austin, TX 2023 Artspace Warehouse, Los Angeles, CA 2022 “Identity with a Chance of Imperfection”, Artspace Warehouse, Los Angeles, CA 2022 “Saturate Euphoria”, Artspace Warehouse, Los Angeles, CA 2021 Affordable Art Fair New York, NY 2021 “Splatters of Life”, Artspace Warehouse, Los Angeles, CA 2020 LA Art Show, CA 2020 Art Palm Springs, CA 2019 Affordable Art Fair Hong Kong 2019 Affordable Art Fair New York 2019 Artspace Warehouse, Los Angeles, CA 2018 "Colored Whipped Cream," Artspace Warehouse, Los Angeles, CA 2018 Threshold Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2018 484 North Gallery, Laguna Beach 2013 Beirut Art Beat 2009 Lebanese Artists Association 2009 Gallery Surface Libre 2008 Lebanese Painters Exhibition 2007 Café De Prague Hamra 2007 Cream Saifi Village 2007 Matignion Gallery, Horsh Tabet 2007 Drops Batroun (permanent) 2007 Cloud Nine Jemaizeh (permanent) 2007 Tribecca Monnot 2006 Art Lounge, Beirut, Lebanon 2006 MILK Jemaizeh (permanent) 2006 Gauche Caviar Jemaizeh (permanent) 2006 ESCWA Riad El Solh 2006 Tapas Jemaizeh (permanent) 2006 Zinc Achrafieh 2006 Blush Monot 2006 The Basement Jemaizeh 2005 Solo Gallery Show, Art Lounge, Beirut 2005 Zinc Achrafieh 2005 Tribecca Monot Café 2004 Paul Guiragossian...

Antonio Alberti (1603 - 1649) Portrait of Cardinal Antonio Marcello Barberini (Florence 1569 – Rome 1646) Inscription on the bottom: F.M D.D ANTONIUS BARBERINUS ROM. O. CAP. S.R.E. ...

This charming mid-19th-century oil painting by British artist John Robert Wildman (1788-1843) depicts a gentleman wearing a dark brown frock coat with waistcoat, white shirt and crav...

Elegant Young Lady In The Landscape. Portrait depicting a beautiful young woman in the landscape dressed in a tulle dress and hat decorated with pink roses...

This is an Antique oil painting on canvas 19 century depicting a portrait of a British Gentleman by Listed British-Irish Artist Samuel West (1810-1860). C...

Pegah Samaie's (CA based) "Masked" is an original, handmade oil painting that depicts a woman's face with floating fabric flowers that partially obstruct her features About the Arti...

Self Portrait at 43

Portrait of a Lady French Impressionist artist, circa 1975 inscribed verso oil on canvas canvas: 24 x 18 inches provenance: private collection, France condition: very good and sound ...

ABOUT THE ARTWORK The work “OLIVIA,” is part of the author's broader exploration of the theme of human identity in the modern world. Special attention is paid to the portrayal of th...

The Man with the Moustache signed by Louise Alix (French, 1888-1980) *see notes below oil painting on canvas unframed measures: 18 inches high by 23.5 inches wide condition: overall ...

This formal portrait depicts a distinguished gentleman from the 19th century, rendered in oil with rich, warm tones that emphasise his dignified bearing and period attire, including ...

This superb British portrait oil painting is by noted artist George Spencer Watson and is dateable to 1913. The sitter is Lillian Gardiner ( Mrs ...

This bold and expressive mixed-media portrait by artist Serg Graff presents a fantastical reimagining of a young George Washington (1732-1799) - the Founding Father of the United Sta...

Shipping Procedure Ships in a well-protected tube. This work is unique, not a print or other type of copy. Accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity. About Artist Jason Langa...

Follower of Pierre Gobert 18th century French The Duke and Duchess of Burgundy Oil on canvas Refinement and intricacy characterize these royal portra...

When I arrived at my grandmother's house, the neighbors said, "Oh, the city girl has arrived." And my grandmother said, "Child, what have you done to yourself? You're a girl..." My g...

The Game Keeper by John Edwards (English, 1940 - 2020) signed oil on canvas, framed framed: 29 x 23.5 inches canvas : 23 x 18 inches Provenance: private collection, England Condition...

Portrait of a Young Lady French Modernist artist, circa 1960's period signed oil on board, unframed Board: 21.5 x 15 inches Provenance: private collection, France Condition: very goo...

Oil on canvas realized in 2000. Hand signed, titled and dated on rear. Includes a contemporary wooden frame cm. 53x38. Very good condition except for some very minor losses of color.

French school around 1850 Oil on oil 41 x 33 cm (54 x 47 cm with frame) Inscription on the back “Lefevre” Based on the model's hairstyle, the portrait can be dated around 1850. The ...

Elvis, Metallic Silver and Black Full Length Silkscreen Painting by Charles Lutz Silkscreen and silver enamel painted on vintage 1960's era linen with Artist's Denied stamp of the Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board. 82" x 40" inches 2010 Lutz's 2007 ''Warhol Denied'' series gained international attention by calling into question the importance of originality or lack thereof in the work of Andy Warhol. The authentication/denial process of the [[Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board]] was used to create value by submitting recreations of Warhol works for judgment with the full intention for the works to be formally marked "DENIED". The final product of the conceptual project being "officially denied" "Warhol" paintings authored by Lutz. Based on the full-length Elvis Presley paintings by Pop Artist Andy Warhol in 1964, this is likely one of his most iconic images, next to Campbell's Soup Cans and portraits of Jackie Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, Liz Taylor, and Marlon Brando. This is the rarest of the Elvis works from the series, as Lutz sourced a vintage roll of 1960's primed artist linen which was used for this one Elvis. The silkscreen, like Warhol's embraced imperfections, like the slight double image printing of the Elvis image. Lutz received his BFA in Painting and Art History from Pratt Institute and studied Human Dissection and Anatomy at Columbia University, New York. Lutz's work deals with perceptions and value structures, specifically the idea of the transference of values. Lutz's most recently presented an installation of new sculptures dealing with consumerism at Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater House in 2022. Lutz's 2007 Warhol Denied series received international attention calling into question the importance of originality in a work of art. The valuation process (authentication or denial) of the Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board was used by the artist to create value by submitting recreations of Warhol works for judgment, with the full intention for the works to be formally marked "DENIED" of their authenticity. The final product of this conceptual project is "Officially DENIED" "Warhol" paintings authored by Lutz. Later in 2013, Lutz went on to do one of his largest public installations to date. At the 100th Anniversary of Marcel Duchamp's groundbreaking and controversial Armory Show, Lutz was asked by the curator of Armory Focus: USA and former Director of The Andy Warhol Museum, Eric Shiner to create a site-specific installation representing the US. The installation "Babel" (based on Pieter Bruegel's famous painting) consisted of 1500 cardboard replicas of Warhol's Brillo Box (Stockholm Type) stacked 20 ft tall. All 1500 boxes were then given to the public freely, debasing the Brillo Box as an art commodity by removing its value, in addition to debasing its willing consumers. Elvis was "the greatest cultural force in the Twentieth Century. He introduced the beat to everything, and he changed everything - music, language, clothes, it's a whole new social revolution." Leonard Bernstein in: Exh. Cat., Boston, The Institute of Contemporary Art and traveling, Elvis + Marilyn 2 x Immortal, 1994-97, p. 9. Andy Warhol "quite simply changed how we all see the world around us." Kynaston McShine in: Exh. Cat., New York, Museum of Modern Art (and traveling), Andy Warhol: Retrospective, 1996, p. 13. In the summer of 1963 Elvis Presley was just twenty-eight years old but already a legend of his time. During the preceding seven years - since Heartbreak Hotel became the biggest-selling record of 1956 - he had recorded seventeen number-one singles and seven number-one albums; starred in eleven films, countless national TV appearances, tours, and live performances; earned tens of millions of dollars; and was instantly recognized across the globe. The undisputed King of Rock and Roll, Elvis was the biggest star alive: a cultural phenomenon of mythic proportions apparently no longer confined to the man alone. As the eminent composer Leonard Bernstein put it, Elvis was "the greatest cultural force in the Twentieth Century. He introduced the beat to everything, and he changed everything - music, language, clothes, it's a whole new social revolution." (Exh. Cat., Boston, The Institute of Contemporary Art (and traveling), Elvis + Marilyn 2 x Immortal, 1994, p. 9). In the summer of 1963 Andy Warhol was thirty-four years old and transforming the parameters of visual culture in America. The focus of his signature silkscreen was leveled at subjects he brilliantly perceived as the most important concerns of day to day contemporary life. By appropriating the visual vernacular of consumer culture and multiplying readymade images gleaned from newspapers, magazines and advertising, he turned a mirror onto the contradictions behind quotidian existence. Above all else he was obsessed with themes of celebrity and death, executing intensely multifaceted and complex works in series that continue to resound with universal relevance. His unprecedented practice re-presented how society viewed itself, simultaneously reinforcing and radically undermining the collective psychology of popular culture. He epitomized the tide of change that swept through the 1960s and, as Kynaston McShine has concisely stated, "He quite simply changed how we all see the world around us." (Exh. Cat., New York, Museum of Modern Art (and traveling), Andy Warhol: Retrospective, 1996, p. 13). Thus in the summer of 1963 there could not have been a more perfect alignment of artist and subject than Warhol and Elvis. Perhaps the most famous depiction of the biggest superstar by the original superstar artist, Double Elvis is a historic paradigm of Pop Art from a breath-taking moment in Art History. With devastating immediacy and efficiency, Warhol's canvas seduces our view with a stunning aesthetic and confronts our experience with a sophisticated array of thematic content. Not only is there all of Elvis, man and legend, but we are also presented with the specter of death, staring at us down the barrel of a gun; and the lone cowboy, confronting the great frontier and the American dream. The spray painted silver screen denotes the glamour and glory of cinema, the artificiality of fantasy, and the idea of a mirror that reveals our own reality back to us. At the same time, Warhol's replication of Elvis' image as a double stands as metaphor for the means and effects of mass-media and its inherent potential to manipulate and condition. These thematic strata function in simultaneous concert to deliver a work of phenomenal conceptual brilliance. The portrait of a man, the portrait of a country, and the portrait of a time, Double Elvis is an indisputable icon for our age. The source image was a publicity still for the movie Flaming Star, starring Presley as the character Pacer Burton and directed by Don Siegel in 1960. The film was originally intended as a vehicle for Marlon Brando and produced by David Weisbart, who had made James Dean's Rebel Without a Cause in 1955. It was the first of two Twentieth Century Fox productions Presley was contracted to by his manager Colonel Tom Parker, determined to make the singer a movie star. For the compulsive movie-fan Warhol, the sheer power of Elvis wielding a revolver as the reluctant gunslinger presented the zenith of subject matter: ultimate celebrity invested with the ultimate power to issue death. Warhol's Elvis is physically larger than life and wears the expression that catapulted him into a million hearts: inexplicably and all at once fearful and resolute; vulnerable and predatory; innocent and explicit. It is the look of David Halberstam's observation that "Elvis Presley was an American original, the rebel as mother's boy, alternately sweet and sullen, ready on demand to be either respectable or rebellious." (Exh. Cat., Boston, Op. Cit.). Indeed, amidst Warhol's art there is only one other subject whose character so ethereally defies categorization and who so acutely conflated total fame with the inevitability of mortality. In Warhol's work, only Elvis and Marilyn harness a pictorial magnetism of mythic proportions. With Marilyn Monroe, whom Warhol depicted immediately after her premature death in August 1962, he discovered a memento mori to unite the obsessions driving his career: glamour, beauty, fame, and death. As a star of the silver screen and the definitive international sex symbol, Marilyn epitomized the unattainable essence of superstardom that Warhol craved. Just as there was no question in 1963, there remains still none today that the male equivalent to Marilyn is Elvis. However, despite his famous 1968 adage, "If you want to know all about Andy Warhol, just look at the surface of my paintings" Warhol's fascination held purpose far beyond mere idolization. As Rainer Crone explained in 1970, Warhol was interested in movie stars above all else because they were "people who could justifiably be seen as the nearest thing to representatives of mass culture." (Rainer Crone, Andy Warhol, New York, 1970, p. 22). Warhol was singularly drawn to the idols of Elvis and Marilyn, as he was to Marlon Brando and Liz Taylor, because he implicitly understood the concurrence between the projection of their image and the projection of their brand. Some years after the present work he wrote, "In the early days of film, fans used to idolize a whole star - they would take one star and love everything about that star...So you should always have a product that's not just 'you.' An actress should count up her plays and movies and a model should count up her photographs and a writer should count up his words and an artist should count up his pictures so you always know exactly what you're worth, and you don't get stuck thinking your product is you and your fame, and your aura." (Andy Warhol, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B and Back Again), San Diego, New York and London, 1977, p. 86). The film stars of the late 1950s and early 1960s that most obsessed Warhol embodied tectonic shifts in wider cultural and societal values. In 1971 John Coplans argued that Warhol was transfixed by the subject of Elvis, and to a lesser degree by Marlon Brando and James Dean, because they were "authentically creative, and not merely products of Hollywood's fantasy or commercialism. All three had originative lives, and therefore are strong personalities; all three raised - at one level or another - important questions as to the quality of life in America and the nature of its freedoms. Implicit in their attitude is a condemnation of society and its ways; they project an image of the necessity for the individual to search for his own future, not passively, but aggressively, with commitment and passion." (John Coplans, "Andy Warhol and Elvis Presley," Studio International, vol. 181, no. 930, February 1971, pp. 51-52). However, while Warhol unquestionably adored these idols as transformative heralds, the suggestion that his paintings of Elvis are uncritical of a generated public image issued for mass consumption fails to appreciate the acuity of his specific re-presentation of the King. As with Marilyn, Liz and Marlon, Warhol instinctively understood the Elvis brand as an industrialized construct, designed for mass consumption like a Coca-Cola bottle or Campbell's Soup Can, and radically revealed it as a precisely composed non-reality. Of course Elvis offered Warhol the biggest brand of all, and he accentuates this by choosing a manifestly contrived version of Elvis-the-film-star, rather than the raw genius of Elvis as performing Rock n' Roll pioneer. A few months prior to the present work he had silkscreened Elvis' brooding visage in a small cycle of works based on a simple headshot, including Red Elvis, but the absence of context in these works minimizes the critical potency that is so present in Double Elvis. With Double Elvis we are confronted by a figure so familiar to us, yet playing a role relating to violence and death that is entirely at odds with the associations entrenched with the singer's renowned love songs. Although we may think this version of Elvis makes sense, it is the overwhelming power of the totemic cipher of the Elvis legend that means we might not even question why he is pointing a gun rather than a guitar. Thus Warhol interrogates the limits of the popular visual vernacular, posing vital questions of collective perception and cognition in contemporary society. The notion that this self-determinedly iconic painting shows an artificial paradigm is compounded by Warhol's enlistment of a reflective metallic surface, a treatment he reserved for his most important portraits of Elvis, Marilyn, Marlon and Liz. Here the synthetic chemical silver paint becomes allegory for the manufacture of the Elvis product, and directly anticipates the artist's 1968 statement: "Everything is sort of artificial. I don't know where the artificial stops and the real starts. The artificial fascinates me, the bright and shiny..." (Artist quoted in Exh. Cat., Stockholm, Moderna Museet and traveling, Andy Warhol, 1968, n.p.). At the same time, the shiny silver paint of Double Elvis unquestionably denotes the glamour of the silver screen and the attractive fantasies of cinema. At exactly this time in the summer of 1963 Warhol bought his first movie camera and produced his first films such as Sleep, Kiss and Tarzan and Jane Regained. Although the absence of plot or narrative convention in these movies was a purposely anti-Hollywood gesture, the unattainability of classic movie stardom still held profound allure and resonance for Warhol. He remained a celebrity and film fanatic, and it was exactly this addiction that so qualifies his sensational critique of the industry machinations behind the stars he adored. Double Elvis was executed less than eighteen months after he had created 32 Campbell's Soup Cans for his immortal show at the Ferus Gallery, Los Angeles in July and August 1962, and which is famously housed in the Museum of Modern Art, New York. In the intervening period he had produced the series Dollar Bills, Coca-Cola Bottles, Suicides, Disasters, and Silver Electric Chairs, all in addition to the portrait cycles of Marilyn and Liz. This explosive outpouring of astonishing artistic invention stands as definitive testament to Warhol's aptitude to seize the most potent images of his time. He recognized that not only the product itself, but also the means of consumption - in this case society's abandoned deification of Elvis - was symptomatic of a new mode of existence. As Heiner Bastian has precisely summated: "the aura of utterly affirmative idolization already stands as a stereotype of a 'consumer-goods style' expression of an American way of life and of the mass-media culture of a nation." (Exh. Cat., Berlin, Neue Nationalgalerie (and traveling), Andy Warhol: Retrospective, 2001, p. 28). For Warhol, the act of image replication and multiplication anaesthetized the effect of the subject, and while he had undermined the potency of wealth in 200 One Dollar Bills, and cheated the terror of death by electric chair in Silver Disaster # 6, the proliferation of Elvis here emasculates a prefabricated version of character authenticity. Here the cinematic quality of variety within unity is apparent in the degrees to which Presley's arm and gun become less visible to the left of the canvas. The sense of movement is further enhanced by a sense of receding depth as the viewer is presented with the ghost like repetition of the figure in the left of the canvas, a 'jump effect' in the screening process that would be replicated in the multiple Elvis paintings. The seriality of the image heightens the sense of a moving image, displayed for us like the unwinding of a reel of film. Elvis was central to Warhol's legendary solo exhibition organized by Irving Blum at the Ferus Gallery in the Fall of 1963 - the show having been conceived around the Elvis paintings since at least May of that year. A well-known installation photograph shows the present work prominently presented among the constant reel of canvases, designed to fill the space as a filmic diorama. While the Elvis canvases...

1920's Portrait of an Elegant Woman, Oil Painting, British British School, Early 20th Century Oil painting on wood panel, unframed Board size: 9.25 x 6 inches Quite a stunning portr...

Topers in Deep Conversation Dutch School, mid 17th entury circle of David Teniers (Dutch 1610-1690) oil on canvas canvas: 8 x 7 inches provenance: private collection, France conditio...

Pierre Carrier-Belleuse (Parigi, 1851-1931). "Portrait of Actress in Belle Epoque Paris" pastel on canvas signed upper right and dated 1921 in its original gilt wood frame. Bellissim...

‘Young Beauty holding a Red Rose’ by Étienne Adolphe Piot (1831-1910). Academy Fine Paintings is fully conversant with the latest US Government import duties and the legal exemptio...

The existence of sisters in their hood is a completion of creation. Apart from being a vibrant colour that saturates the whole universe, they also carry in their embodiment the power...

Work on wood Molded frame in plaster and gilded wood 65 x 57 x 8 cm

This surrealist figurative portrait on canvas merges traditional painting techniques with symbolic elements of contemporary art. Executed in acrylic on board, the piece measures 60 x...

Portrait of a Lady in a Garden French School, early 1900's typical of the Nabis School movement oil on canvas, framed framed: 16.5 x 16.5 inches canvas : 14.5 x 14.5 inches provenanc...