GERALD LAING

Portrait of Farquhar Aged 10 1980

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Portrait of Farquhar Aged 10

Catalogue raisonné no. 425

Artist's CR 394

Christmas, 1980

Kinkell

Bronze

Edition of 10

11.5 x 7 x9.5 inches / 0 cm

Selected Citations and Comments

Laing’s first naturalistic portrait head.

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I had seen a photograph of a portrait head of a young boy by Michelangelo. The way he had formalized the neck and tilted one shoulder appealed to me, as did the fact that the subject was not too dissimilar to my eldest son Farquhar. I asked Farquhar to pose for me and modelled his portrait, borrowing from the Michelangelo composition. The clay flew off the modelling tool, and I achieved the sculpture very quickly.

Gerald Laing, 'Gerald Laing: An Autobiography', unpublished manuscript, 2011, ch.45