Romantic Portrait Painting, Original Acrylic and Ink Man in Red Cravat, 16x20
The Writer is an original Romantic portrait painting by independent artist Markus Lewis, made for walls that like their drama with a little restraint. A young man in three-quarter profile stares past the frame at something only he can see. He has a thin mustache and three days of stubble, and a flush sits high on his cheek, as if he’s either feverish or has been drinking. A blood-red cravat, loosely knotted, is the one hot note in a coat of grey ink scratches.
The hair is the event: a storm of white and black strokes thrown up off his head, more weather than haircut. Behind him the ground is smoky pewter and tarnished gold, with a faint diamond pattern surfacing and fading like old wallpaper, and pale streaks running down it like rain on a window.
He is the Byronic idea of a writer, the man who looks like he’s suffering for the sentence. The artist likes him and doesn’t fully trust him. The face is composed, nearly vain, dressed for the portrait, and everything above the eyebrows is chaos. That’s the split the painting is about: the calm he presents and the noise he actually lives in, the scribble that never makes it to the page. The ink lines stay loose and unfinished on purpose. He’s still a draft.
The piece measures 16" x 20" x 0.5" and is made with acrylic, paper, and ink on canvas. It is ready to hang and is a one-of-a-kind original, not a print, signed by the artist.
