E.074 RH (Robert Harris) 1993

• I. 1st state of 3

  

  Drypoint. Portrait of Robert Harris, showing his head and neck; he looks to the right. The pupil area of the eye on the left is blank. The background is summarily scored with vertical strokes.

  Impression on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘1 [circled]’; lower centre: ‘RH’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’93’.

• II. 2nd state of 3 (Featured Image)

  

  The face has now been worked up in drypoint: wrinkles have been added to the forehead; the left eye has been completed, and its pupil added; the cheeks have been modelled with additional drypoint strokes; and the lower lip has been darkened with hatching. Several oblique strokes have been added to the right shoulder. The background has been darkened with more drypoint.

  Impression with rich burr, on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘2 [circled]’; lower centre: ‘RH’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’93’.

• III. 3rd and final state

  The drypoint burr in the pupils of the eyes has been burnished to lessen its darkness. There are three variant impressions of this state.

  1. Impression on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘AP I’; lower centre: ‘RH’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’93’.
  2. Impression with less drypoint burr evident in the eyes, on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘AP II’; lower centre: ‘RH’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’93’.
  3. Impression on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘AP III’; lower centre: ‘RH’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’93’.

• No edition

• Comment

  This portrait of the poet, teacher and literary editor, and sometime labourer and hearse driver, Robert Harris (1951–1993) was commissioned for the literary journal Overland by its editor, Barrett Reid, following Harris’s sudden death in 1993 in Sydney.

  Amor and Harris knew one another from their involvement with Overland, where Harris had been on the editorial committee, and the journal’s poetry editor, for some time.

  Amor based his drypoint portrait of Harris on a photograph (now lost) given to him by Barrett Reid. The print appeared in Overland together with autobiographical notes by Harris, published in his memory (Harris 1993).