Heath Ledger Portrait Nominated For Australian Art Prize

A portrait of the late Heath Ledger is a contender for Australia's esteemed Archibald Prize, one of the most prominent art prizes in the country. It was painted by the actor's friend, Vincent Fantauzzo.

Simply titled "Heath," the portrait features three versions of the actor – one haunted-looking rendition in the center of the canvas flanked by two whispering figures on either side. According to Fantauzzo, originally one of the side figures was to be screaming, but the artist changed his concept, worrying that it would dominate the central figure, which he intended to be the focus. "The whispering, the voices, the frustration or something comical – they different ways that we might be thinking in our own mind," Fantauzzo told Australia's Daily Telegraph.

Painted at Ledger's family's Perth home in December, Fantauzzo says the two men collaborated on the concept together. Ledger sat for the portrait, even signing a form to vouch for its authenticity and qualify the piece for an Archibald Prize. "He signed it in the wrong spot," the artist remembered.

After their initial sessions, Ledger returned his work, and the painting sat in Fantauzzo's Melbourne home, hanging on the wall until the artist heard the sad news of the actor's death. "I just didn't believe it," he said. "When you paint someone, you meditate over them. I was painting Heath every day for 10 hours a day."

The Archibald Prize will be announced on March 7. So far, 249 portraits have been entered in the contest.

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I have posted about Heath Ledger on this blog on 6 previous occasions. As you may or may not have guessed, I liked Heath Ledger as an actor. I have seen a few of his films (Brokeback Mountain, Casanova, Monsters Ball, Lords of Dogtown, The Order and The Brothers Grimm) and I really liked and admired his incredible acting range-The ability Heath had to go from the lewd and rambunctious Casanova to a subdued, low key Mid-western Cowboy who fell in love with another man. These are the links to older Heath Ledger postings on this blog just in case you might be interested.

Heath Ledger:1979-2008Possibly Last Video Footage of Heath LedgerHeath Ledger's Final Portrait Jude Law, Colin Farrell, and Johnny Depp To Assume Heath Ledger's Role in the Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus Heath Ledger's Unfinished Film:The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus Heath Ledger Lives on as Doll

Heath Ledger's Final Portrait

Australia’s The Daily Telegraph reports that Melbourne artist Vincent Fantauzzo put the finishing touches on his painting of Heath Ledger at his Docklands studio the day before the star was found dead in his NY apartment.

Ledger sat for Fantauzzo on his last visit home to Perth, Australia in December. Fantauzzo painted Ledger with the intention of entering the portrait in the prestigious Archibald Prize later this year. But the newly finished work got an early showing, when, with the approval of the Ledger family, Fantauzzo released the image to the media. The painting depicts the notoriously private actor as three separate images. The central, and largest, image is of Ledger, bare-chested, looking straight ahead, appearing pained and exhausted. The two background images are of Ledger wearing humorous expressions, whispering into the ears of his foreground image.

Heath Ledger's Final Portrait - Vincent Fantauzzo's Painting