Johnny Depp’s hand painting portrait of Bob Marley sold out despite hefty price tag.
Johnny Depp has parted ways with several handcrafted paintings of some of the world’s biggest celebrities, including Bob Marley, Heath Ledger, and others. The talented actor reportedly painted the silk-screen prints, which recently went on sale.
United Kingdom art retailer Castle Fine Art announced the sale of the pieces dubbed “Johnny Depp’s Friends & Heroes II” collection. The portraits included reggae legend and icon Bob Marley, late actor Heath Ledger, River Phoenix, and Hunter S. Thompson.
The Art retailer wrote, “the collection is a unique insight into the world of Hollywood from one of its biggest stars.”
The Bob Marley painting featured an uncanny likeness to the real looks of the “Redemption” artist and also appeared to have personal touches on his team, including words of resistance and lyrics from some of his most popular songs, including the track “war.”
Ledger’s portrait was also unique as it featured the artist’s face, but his hair and facial structure resembled the character the Joker from his award-winning performance of the movie Batman.
The paintings were originally on sale for £17,500 or U$21,000 for all four pieces as a package.
Individual pieces were on sale for $5,400 each, but within a few hours of the listing, all 780 prints sold out, Variety reported. The paintings were snapped up within hours of it being announced.
The art hour described the artist’s creative process as, “Each image is an intimate reflection of their character in Johnny’s eyes; a portrayal of how they have revealed themselves to him. Working from photographic references, each image has been stripped back to a simpler and iconic portrayal of the subject, which Johnny has then developed and energised with his characteristic freehand flourishes.”
This is the second art sale by Depp. His previous collection, “Friends & Heroes,” featured paintings of Keith Richards, Al Pacino, Bob Dylan, and Elizabeth Taylor and were on sale for $4,740 each.
Despite passing away decades ago, Bob Marley’s music and influence remains imprinted on humanity with fans across many generations including a lot of us born after his death. The Jamaican reggae legend died on May 11, 1981, from cancer.
Johnny Depp speak on the power of Bob Marley’s lyrics in some of his biggest songs.
“Bob Marley is a hero, a legend,” Depp said while clad in a Rastafarian tam. “Bob Marley’s words, if you take one song, just take the song War: ‘until the philosophy which olds one race superior and another inferior, is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned, everywhere is war.’ That’s one verse. And his expression of that rage for wanting peace so bad that he was able to perform that song war.”
Johnny Depp also painted portraits of River Phoeni, Hunter S Thompson and Heath Ledger, saying he would like to be in a room with the four of them.
