Boty’s “lost” Marilyn Monroe painting photographed by John Aston confirmed to be beneath “Colour Her Gone”

Colour Her Gone by Pauline Boty, 1962 overlaid with portrait of Boty with Marilyn with Beads, 1962 photographed by John Aston. © John Aston 1962

When originally compiling the list of Boty’s paintings for this website I consulted Dr Sue Tate as to whether I should include the “Marilyn with Beads” that Boty is photographed with by John Aston in a print owned by the National Portrait Gallery. Tate was adamant the work no longer existed as she felt sure that Boty had chosen to overpaint it with Colour Her Gone, citing the likelihood that the artist was unhappy with the somewhat crude and overlarge rendering of Monroe’s hand holding the beads – and so it has always been listed accordingly here.

John Aston was commissioned by Men Only to photograph Boty for a feature entitled “Pauline Goes Pop” in the March 1963 issue, ultimately returning for a second session as the first set of prints he showed the magazine wasn’t deemed suitable for its readership.

Pauline Boty with Marilyn with Beads, 1962, photographed by John Aston. © John Aston 1962

Having had the chance to look again at Colour Her Gone at Gazelli Art House for the first time since 2013 at the exhibition “Pauline Boty: Pop Artist and Woman”, it occurred to me to see what would happen if I montaged the two images together in Photoshop. As per the first image above, the abstract panels looked to me to match nigh on identically, with the central figurative area of the painting maintaining the same width to support Tate’s assertion and I provided Wolverhampton Art Gallery and Gazelli with printouts to propose the theory.

Happily, the two galleries chose to jointly commission a detailed analysis of the work, resulting in the recent announcements from Gazelli Art House and news article from Artnet:

“Exciting news involving Gazelli Art House, Wolverhampton Art Gallery, paulineboty.org, and Dr Sue Tate was recently revealed during Gazelli’s book launch and talk on 23rd January 2024. Together with Wolverhampton Art Gallery, Gazelli Art House conducted a reflectogram (an image taken from beneath an artwork’s surface) validating the ongoing research efforts led by Dr. Sue Tate and Christopher Gregory (paulineboty.org).
In a stunning revelation, an entirely new narrative for Pauline Boty’s famed painting Colour Her Gone (1962) has come to light. A reflectogram has shown the iconic portrait of Marilyn Monroe was painted over an earlier image of the star, Marilyn with Beads. This was long thought to be a lost painting, and can be traced back to a 1962 photograph by John Aston. Boty’s Pop Art aesthetic, characterised by broad brushwork and flat perspective, initially suggests a straightforward technique, however reflectography has exposed the intricate evolution of the composition.
Painted alterations, particularly to the top of the right-hand colour field panel and the central green ribbon, indicate contemporaneous changes, suggesting a wholesale repainting of the artwork. Pentimenti (visible traces of earlier painting beneath painted layers), showcasing shifts in pearl positions and nostril locations, reflect the artist’s organic design approach.
Overall, infrared reflectography (IRR) indicates not just changes in colour panel forms but also hints at alterations to colours used. The transparency of the green upper design in infrared suggests a different initial colour, opening avenues for exploration into pigment variations. The reflectogram invites a closer examination of this artistic transformation, offering a unique glimpse into the complex layers of Colour Her Gone.
Colour Her Gone was lent to Gazelli Art House for Pauline Boty: A Portrait (2023-24) by Wolverhampton Art Gallery.

Colour Her Gone; by Pauline Boty, 1962, oil on canvas

‘I had long thought that Marilyn with Beads was not a lost work but lay under Colour Her Gone. The reflectogram gives us conclusive evidence. Here as in other paintings Boty has radically reworked a composition until she had clinched the image that expressed exactly what she wanted to say”. The reflectogram also allows to see, as the report states, “the highly complex development of the composition” and “a high level of planning”, refuting criticisms of slapdash work.’
— Dr. Sue Tate, Freelance Art Historian”

As a footnote both Boty’s source image of Monroe from Town magazine and the paintings’s title originate from the same month of November 1962. In the latter case it was the release date of the single My Colouring Book by among others, Barbra Streisand, with its original closing refrain of “Colour him gone”. Clearly the song made an impression on the artist as she took its title to name another of her works, also including typed fragments of its lyrics, applied using Letraset.

Town magazine, November 1962, published by Corrmarket Press. Cover photo of Marilyn Monroe by George Barris

To see Artnet’s write-up of the report’s confirmation, please see here: [link]

Pauline Boty’s stained glass self portrait back on display soon at the National Portrait Gallery

Pauline Boty’s stained glass “Self Portrait”, c.1958 at the National Portrait Gallery. Photo by paulineboty.org

The National Portrait Gallery, closed for extensive refurbishment since 2020, has confirmed that Pauline Boty’s c.1958 stained glass work “Self Portrait” will be on display (in Room 28) when reopening to visitors on 22 June.

“A rare self-portrait in Boty’s oeuvre, this is a beautiful and assured portrait in stained glass, believed to date from 1958 when Boty was a student in the stained glass department at the Royal College of Art. There are conventional borders with floral motifs and quatrefoils. The work incorporates many of the creative techniques associated with the influential stained glass department of the Royal College of Art at that period, including layering, aciding of deep flashed layers, and expressive use of glass painting. The glass leading is experimental, with its eccentric use of arbitrary leads such as the piece cutting across the face of the figure.” [from the NPG’s website]

Detail of Pauline Boty’s stained glass “Self Portrait”, c.1958 at the National Portrait Gallery. Photo by paulineboty.org

The gallery also has a number of portraits of Boty by different photographers including Lewis Morley, Michael Ward and Michael Seymour, which can be viewed on their website at npg.org.uk

Further information is available here: [link]

Pauline Boty with “Scandal ’63” by Michael Ward on display at the National Portrait Gallery

Pauline Boty by Michael Ward, 13 January 1964, C-type colour print

The portrait of Pauline Boty with her presumed lost work “Scandal ’63” is on display in “The UK 1960–Today” in Room 32 at the National Portrait Gallery.

“The display includes groups of portraits by particular artists, inviting the viewer to consider the range of contrasting approaches. While the challenge of depicting an observed sitter remained, a rich stylistic diversity characterises portraiture in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

From the early 1960s the pace of social, political and artistic change in Britain gathered momentum. Food rationing ended only in 1954 and a growing affluence and a new mood of prosperity gave rise to increasing consumerism. Television, cinema, radio, advertising and magazines fuelled these changes by swiftly communicating the latest developments in fashion, design, music, science and the arts. But the optimism of the early 1960s was, by the end of the decade, replaced by a sense that the dream of progress had somehow slipped away. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s inequality in material wealth increasingly created new hierarchies and social tension.” [from the National Portrait Gallery website]

With thanks to Terence Pepper for the notification. More information on the portraits on display can be found here: [link]