Portrait
Portrait
Signed Print
Roy Lichtenstein
£25,000-£40,000 VALUE (EST.)
$50,000-$80,000 VALUE (EST.)
$40,000-$70,000 VALUE (EST.)
¥230,000-¥360,000 VALUE (EST.)
€29,000-€45,000 VALUE (EST.)
$240,000-$390,000 VALUE (EST.)
¥4,580,000-¥7,320,000 VALUE (EST.)
$30,000-$50,000 VALUE (EST.)
This estimate blends recent public auction records with our own private sale data and network demand.
There aren’t enough data points on this work for a comprehensive result. Please speak to a specialist by making an enquiry.
Planographic print, 1989
Signed Print Edition of 60
H 136cm x W 87cm
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Auction Results
| Auction Date | Auction House | Artwork | Hammer Price | Return to Seller | Buyer Paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sotheby's London - United Kingdom | Portrait - Signed Print | ||||
| Sotheby's London - United Kingdom | Portrait - Signed Print | ||||
| September 2023 | Lama - United States | Portrait - Signed Print | |||
| October 2022 | Sotheby's New York - United States | Portrait - Signed Print | |||
| May 2021 | Sotheby's New York - United States | Portrait - Signed Print | |||
| April 2019 | Phillips New York - United States | Portrait - Signed Print | |||
| June 2017 | Phillips London - United Kingdom | Portrait - Signed Print |
Meaning & Analysis
In his 1989 Brushstroke Faces series, Lichtenstein reconsiders the artistic gesture of brushstrokes, as idolised by the abstract expressionists in the 1940s and 1950s. The compositions in this series waver between the figurative and the abstract. The works offer a comment on painting itself, beside exploring the art historical conventions awarding superiority to the so-called ‘high art’ of the past.
Portrait employs a compact format and muted colour scheme comparable to Blue Faceand Green Facefrom the same series. Intersecting brushstrokes in eggshell, mint green and ash brown span the centre of the canvas. However, as opposed to the aforementioned works, Liechtenstein’s traditional red Ben Day dots and blue stripes are firmly incorporated in the main composition of Portrait. Additionally, a considerably enlarged flat sweep of bright yellow on the right hand side of the print, similar to the one featured in Blonde, bears the distinct cartoonish signature of the artist.
The production of this print combined a number of different printing processes, including lithography, screen print and woodcut. Beeswax was employed for the lithographs in this series, as an alternative to printer’s ink. This in turn induced a polished surface texture once printed on the exquisite watercolour paper utilised by the Brushwork Faces series.
