Ruth Smoking 4
Ruth Smoking 4
Signed Print
Julian Opie
£6,000-£9,500 VALUE (EST.)
$11,500-$18,000 VALUE (EST.)
$10,000-$16,000 VALUE (EST.)
¥50,000-¥80,000 VALUE (EST.)
€7,000-€11,000 VALUE (EST.)
$60,000-$90,000 VALUE (EST.)
¥1,040,000-¥1,650,000 VALUE (EST.)
$7,500-$11,500 VALUE (EST.)
This estimate blends recent public auction records with our own private sale data and network demand.
Screenprint, 2006
Signed Print Edition of 50
H 121cm x W 85cm
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Auction Results
| Auction Date | Auction House | Artwork | Hammer Price | Return to Seller | Buyer Paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 2020 | Wilson55 - United Kingdom | Ruth Smoking 4 - Signed Print | |||
| January 2015 | Phillips London - United Kingdom | Ruth Smoking 4 - Signed Print | |||
| March 2013 | Christie's London - United Kingdom | Ruth Smoking 4 - Signed Print | |||
| March 2011 | Bonhams Knightsbridge - United Kingdom | Ruth Smoking 4 - Signed Print |
Meaning & Analysis
Taken from Julian Opie’s Ruth Smokingseries, Ruth Smoking 4 is a screen print from 2006 that shows a three-quarter length portrait of the subject in a red bra, holding a cigarette in her left hand. The portrait is depicted in Opie’s graphic style, characteristic of his other works during the mid-2000s that use bold outlines and bright colour.
An important aspect for Opie in creating the commissioned portraits of Ruth, an art collector living in Geneva, was the fact that the sitter smoked and had long smooth hair. The element of smoking offered Opie the opportunity to animate this image with wisps of rising smoke in further iterations of the subject, thus allowing him to represent a sense of time through the static portrait.
Inspired by the woodblock prints of Japanese artist Kitagawa Utamaro, as well as early Renaissance painters such as Giovanni Bellini and Fra Angelico, Opie deliberately frames these images of Ruth as three-quarter length portraits to place his work in a historical, painterly context. In referencing historical, classic poses through the medium of computer drawing programmes and photography, Opie aims to distance model and viewer, placing the model in a fictional framework. This fictional role is then recognised as a type by the viewer, allowing for a multitude of interpretations.
