Giclee print edition of 100 on archival Hahnemühle Photo Rag paper

35.5 x 28 cm (14 x 11 inches)

(Frame not included, but click here to see an affordable frame you can order online.)

Leslie Caron is one of the last surviving stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema. A French-American actress and dancer, she is the recipient of a Golden Globe Award, two BAFTA Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards.

Caron began her career as a ballerina, and was spotted dancing by Gene Kelly onstage in Paris, who was instrumental in getting her cast opposite him in the 1951 musical An American In Paris. Kelly refereed to her as ‘Kid’, and looked after her on set. He would tell the shy starlet to “turn your face towards the camera or your grandmother won’t know you were in the film”.

In lockdown I immersed myself in the glamour of old Hollywood, the lighting, the cinematography, the dramatic beauty. I also tracked down more of my favourite drawing surface, a polyester film that looks like tracing paper but takes charcoal really beautifully.

Alas, the Mylar I found didn’t have the same tooth as that I’d used previously, and the charcoal just didn’t want to sit on it right. I experimented with painting swathes of clear gesso on the Mylar, and then drawing on that. I loved the effect engendered by the absorbent invisible gesso sucking up the dark dust and glancing off the mylar, like a drawing had magically emerged from a paint tube.

I perfected the technique whilst studying studio shots of starlets, analysing composition and lighting the same way I do when I’m drawing the Old Masters. It was a masterclass in portraiture.

10% of the sale of every print will be donated to The Murray Parish Trust.