Harrison Birtwistle
oil on canvas
51 x 51 cm
1995
National Portrait Gallery

Portraits : HB
pastel on paper
92 x 76.3 cm
1994-95

Portraits : HB
pastel on paper
92 x 76.3 cm
1994-95

Portraits : HB
pastel on paper
92 x 76.3 cm
1994-95

The idea of painting Harrison Birtwistle came originally from the National Portrait Gallery as a notional commission. So much time elapsed however between the suggestion and the completion that amnesia had struck in St Martin's Place. Thus the painting which in any case spread itself over more than a year became a friendly rather than an official match, during which the composer sat looking out of my window at the house opposite and its intriguing comings and goings. These Rear Window events aroused his curiosity (and mine, for I often downed tools to share a strange happening or guest appearance of a new character).

The house appears in the painting where I have put myself and my wife in the window. Echoes remain in the picture of Harry's early request that it should feature the cooling towers that he remembers from childhood. Otherwise the painting contains glancing references to his operas (he was at the time at work on The Second Mrs Kong) and things we had talked about.

Towards the end of the sittings I started on some larger drawings (there had been one or two initial studies) which threatened to turn into a series. One or two of these were finished sometime later from memory.

Sacred and Profane / Drawing to a Conclusion (1997),  pp. 18-19