"Human beings are very avant-garde, and are as worthy a contemporary subject as anything else."
One of the most influential artists in the field of contemporary figurative painting, Peyton is lauded for her paintings of cultural icons and close friends that have reinvigorated portraiture, imbuing the subjects with an intimacy and familiarity that resonates with a strong romantic devotion. Intimately scaled and rendered in lush, sensual crimson brushstrokes, the present work depicts a young Queen Elizabeth II, without the crown jewels, in a relaxed rendering of Her Royal Highness. The present work sees the masterfully skilled blending of soft blurred hues, almost dreamlike and transient in application, yet sharpened by Peyton’s precise and expressive marks. Fluid washes of richly toned pigment coalesce to portray the Queen of England in a familiar and accessible depiction, in which there is a luminosity and emotive precision to the present work that is so quintessentially Peyton.
At a time when the contemporary art world deemed figurative painting archaic, Peyton’s work filled a fresh and innovative niche through her particular brand of romanticised realism and the unironic treatment of her subjects. A subject that continues to intrigue her, Peyton has created images of royalty throughout her career, both historical and current, such as Louis XIV, King Ludwig II of Bavaria, and Prince Harry, with portraits from this series in major public collections including Prince Harry and Prince William, 1999 (Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris), and Prince Harry in Westminster Abbey, London, November 1997, 1998 (Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg). As in her numerous other portraits of friends and loved ones, the artist paints with broad strokes and spare details that make the sitter seem hazy, perhaps untouchable, yet there is an air of familiarity that creates a powerfully atmospheric impact for the viewer. As Peyton comments, "Making art is making something live forever. Human beings especially - we can’t hold on to them in any way. Painting is a way of holding onto things and making things go on through time” (the artist quoted in: Jarvis Cocker, “Elizabeth Peyton,” Interview Magazine, 26 November 2008, online).
“I just have a feeling of urgency that I want to make a picture of somebody. Probably because I’m very inspired by them or there is something I really want to know about or understand in them. So, fascination? Yes. Admiration? Yes. But also curiosity — I get fascinated by what people are doing and what they’re making and how it’s what I need at that moment.”
Emerging in the 1990s, Peyton captivated the art world with her portraits of friends, celebrities and historical figures; she captured the cultural iconography of the age with an intimate feminine gaze and vivid palette, a style that would come to define the artist’s later oeuvre and which helped to usher in a return to figuration.
Often drawn from media sources, Peyton chooses her subjects with great care, only selecting those she admires or for whom she feels an affinity. There is an inherent sense of narrative present in these works, pulsating with nostalgia, imbued with romance and sometimes fraught with angst. Peyton’s devotional portraits, with their unique visual lexicon of highly-coloured features, intimate composition and diminutive scale, are reminiscent of Byzantine icon paintings, commenting on the present-day hero worship of celebrity in our image-drenched culture. Inspired by the studio portraiture of Nadar, Alfred Stieglitz and Robert Mapplethorpe, who all photographed their friends and intimates, and frequently compared to Andy Warhol, Peyton’s representations of iconic images of contemporary celebrities pay tribute to the way in which portraiture can celebrate a person.
By taking her source photograph from the shared repertoire of our image-saturated culture, Peyton lends a certain familiarity and intimacy to the work which the viewer can share. Even if we do not recognise the specific source, we feel as though we do, as though this moment somehow shares in our own nostalgic personal histories. As the artist explains: "There is no separation for me between people I know through their music or photos and someone I know personally. The way I perceive them is very similar, in that there's no difference between certain qualities that I find inspiring in them" (the artist cited in: Rizzoli, ed., Elizabeth Peyton, New York 2005, p. 16). Queen Elizabeth II joins a highly personal pantheon of subjects which includes Sid Vicious, Kurt Cobain, Liam Gallagher, Jarvis Cocker, and friends from her bohemian art circle, as well as literary and historical figures including Honoré de Balzac.
Market Precedent: Elizabeth Peyton
Painting without hegemony - both her close friends and figures in the public eye - there is a democratisation at play in Peyton's technique that blurs social boundaries. Peyton's oeuvre thus presents a parallel aristocracy equally worthy of depiction, which responds in an intensely personal way to individuals whose lives and actions she deems heroic, noble and inspirational.