Montgomery Clift was a Twin - Bilbao Fine Arts Museum

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Montgomery Clift was a Twin

Blake, Peter

Dartford, United Kingdom, 25/06/1932

Oil on canvas

116 x 95 x 8.5 cm

1981-1983

20th century. Last quarter

02/252

Acquired in 2002

  • He based his painting of Clift entirely on a grainy black-and-white photograph of the actor on holiday in Paestum, "an old Greek colony, south of Naples", featured in the Bosworth biography. There is so little information in the reproduction that Blake, in effect, had to invent the details for himself, while remaining faithful to the hazy and indistinct atmosphere of his source. Blake also purchased other recently published books on Clift and black-and-white film stills that could be found in specialist shops on Hollywood Boulevard, but in the end he relied on just the one photograph. He transferred the composition by projecting the page (torn out of the book) onto the canvas with the aid of a Victorian epidiascope, and then tracing it out. Like its companion paintings, it was made to fit exactly into an old and battered gilt frame intended to exaggerate the "academic" look of the finished work, as if it belonged in the atmosphere of one of the great nineteenth-century Salons. The only adjustments to the composition were made for the sake of fitting the picture into the existing frame, and specifically into its oval format. The association with Victorian photographs, frequently made in that oval "vignette" shape, is confirmed by the sepia tones adopted for most of the scene; only the limpid blue sky and the actor's flesh-coloured face are picked out in brighter colours. (Marco Livingstone)

Selected bibliography

  • Peter Blake [Cat. exp.]. London, Tate Gallery, 1983. p. 104, n° cat. 104.
  • Peter Blake [Cat. exp.]. Hannover, Kestner-Gesellschafrt, 1983. pp. 13-14, 16, 135, n° cat. 79.
  • Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao : guía. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2006. p. 199.
  • Musée des Beaux Arts de Bilbao : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2006. p. 199.
  • Bilbao Fine Arts Museum : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2006. p. 199.
  • Livingstone, Marco. "Montgomery Clift Peter Blakeren begietatik = Montgomery Clift visto por Peter Blake = Montgomery Clift through the eyes of Peter Blake", B'05 : Buletina = Boletín = Bulletin, n° 1. 2006. pp. 111-138.
  • Peter Blake : a Retrospective [Cat. exp.]. Liverpool, Tate, 2007. p. 149
  • Adquisiciones 02/07 [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2007. pp. 76-77, n° cat. 29.
  • Peter Blake : retrospectiva [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2008. p. 149. N° cat. 82
  • Livingstone, Marco. Peter Blake one man show. Surrey (Reino Unido), Lund Humphries, 2009. p. 178-179, il. 181.
  • Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao : guía. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2011. p. 199, n° cat. 142.
  • Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa : gida. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2012. p. 199, n° cat. 142.
  • Musée des Beaux Arts de Bilbao : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2014. p. 199.
  • Bilbao Fine Arts Museum : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2014. p. 199.
  • Figurados, figuraciones, figurantes : estar o (tal vez) soñar [Cat. exp.]. [Bilbao], Iberdrola, 2015. pp. 28, 182, 184-185, 202, sin n° cat.
  • Bilboko Museoaren alfabetoa = El alfabeto del Museo de Bilbao = The alphabet of the Bilbao Museum = L'alphabet du Musée de Bilbao [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2018. pp. 320-322, 325-326, 329, n° cat. 180.