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Notes

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Hambling met Stephen Fry in 1993 and asked him to sit for her. In all, she made three oil paintings from life, a number of oil sketches and about two dozen drawings. During breaks, they often discussed Oscar Wilde, though it was some years later that Hambling made a bronze memorial sculpture of Wilde, on Adelaide Street near Trafalgar Square, and that Fry played him in the film 'Wilde' (1997).

This portrait of his face half-crumpled by neurotic anxiety was preferred to her finished painting of him. It was acquired by the Trustees on the day that Fry disappeared from public view, halfway through the run of an unsuccessful production of Simon Gray's play 'Cell Mates'.

National Portrait Gallery, London

London

Title

Stephen Fry

Date

1993

Medium

charcoal on paper

Measurements

H 153 x W 101.6 cm

Accession number

6323

Acquisition method

purchased, 1995

Work type

Drawing

National Portrait Gallery, London

St Martin’s Place, London, Greater London WC2H 0HE England

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Artist or maker

Maggi Hambling

b.1945

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