Tom Phillips, Sir John Gielgud, 1989

Sitter: Sir John Gielgud, actor

Medium/Date: Watercolour, 1989

Artist's note:

While directing (in association with Peter Greenaway) the first eight cantos of A TV DANTE I looked at the face of Sir John Gielgud for as long as I have looked at any portrait sitter, both while he rehearsed and read the part of Virgil and then again day after day as we edited the series.

Since Sir John is always in the same position, I have extensive tapes of him with the same small variations of movement that occur in normal sittings. Playing these with the aid of the Pause control on my unsophisticated video I never light on the same frame twice, just as when looking up at the model while painting I find each time the expression of the sitter has subtly changed and that there is a slightly different inclination on the head.

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