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"Bowie Self Portrait" that Closed for $11,000 - True Image Source Found & Exposed in Overlay

Hi All, Original thread with comments about the rendering click here.

Solved I believe. After looking and looking (and looking (for what I remembered as a Glass Spider image)), I found this. This drawing offered was traced/based from a 1987 Rolling Stone cover that was reissued after Bowie died. The hairline, which looks wrong here and fails physically on our left, is totally different in the 1987 image as is the rest (he had a lot of hair over his forehead now removed). This also explains the confrontational gaze thing - he would never represent himself this way.

I have prepared an overlay so you can see what I am looking at:

1987 cover, "1996 self portrait', overlay...

Best wishes,

Eric

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on May 9, 2016 at 6:36am

It looks like you're onto something. I haven't studied Bowie's art so I don't know if he drew in the style of the $11,000 drawing, though.

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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on May 9, 2016 at 9:23am

Hi Steve,

Thanks. The number of bidders and price realized speak volumes. Should have been twice that and more. He did not draw this well usually or with such meaningless lines employed (the poorly drawn bits are what has not need coped/traced such as the hairline and the line by the jaw), and it is not painted properly either. Below the fake are examples of genuine 1996 Bowie self portraits, including the one that provided the color scheme for this forgery.

Eric

Fake: