30 June, 2023

Rolf Harris

There are very many articles currently in the media about the late Rolf Harris -- and all of them excoriate him for his pedophilia, which consisted mostly of non-violent sexual relationships with teenage females.

It seems to me however that we should consider that a man who was a beloved entertainer for most of his life was not wholly bad. I myself was no follower of his but I always wondered at his improbable  skill with a large paintbrush.

 

So what should we  think of him as an artist?  Predictably, his art has been scorned by critics but I disagree.  I just want to make the single point that his portrait of the Queen  was exceptionally good.  I have seen innumerable pictures and portraits of the queen but, in my view, the  Harris portrait best captures her essence, which is the normal goal of portrait painters

The arty-farty establishment will never be able to find in themselves any praise for that picture.  They will probably call it "chocolate-boxy". But that is their problem.  Much that they praise seems moronic to me.  But we are both entitled to our opinions.De gustibus non disputandum est

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