![Gerald Laing, Jean Harlow, 2011](https://artlogic-res.cloudinary.com/w_1600,h_1600,c_limit,f_auto,fl_lossy,q_auto/artlogicstorage/thefineartsociety/images/view/144677865904aba8a66c8bf3d0a48f1dj/thefineartsocietyltd-gerald-laing-jean-harlow-2011.jpg)
Gerald Laing 1936-2011
Jean Harlow, 2011
signed, titled, dated and numbered in pencil to margin
screenprint in colours with hand-applied platinum leaf and silver dollar foil
printed by Artizan Editions; published by St Pancras Editions, London
printed by Artizan Editions; published by St Pancras Editions, London
edition of 200
sheet: 47 x 34 inches | 121 x 86 cm
'The day after I met Bob [Indiana] I started working for him. To some extent the timing had been fortuitous; shortly before my arrival his long-term relationship with the dress...
"The day after I met Bob [Indiana] I started working for him. To some extent the timing had been fortuitous; shortly before my arrival his long-term relationship with the dress designer, John Kloss, had ended and Kloss had moved out. John Kloss continued to visit Indiana occasionally and commissioned me to make a portrait of Jean Harlow. This I did, and the experience was useful because I had not been commissioned to make a large painting before and it forced me to tackle problems that I would not otherwise have experienced. John gave me a copy of the famous photograph of Harlow in a negligee, sitting cross-legged in a large armchair. I used a shaped canvas - one of the first I made - to show the outline of the chair, and half tone dots for the swansdown of her negligee and for her exposed flesh. All the rest I did in flat colours, remembering the fashions from my mother’s 1930s wardrobe - especially the shoes, of which she had a great number." – G L
Provenance
The artist's estate, catalogue raisonné no. P81Literature
Gerald Laing: Prints and Multiples, exh. catalogue, Sims Reed Gallery (London, 2012)