'Last supper' of 13 Michelin-starred Chefs...
John Reardon is particularly associated with his portraits of chefs for the Observer Food Monthly (UK) for which this commission based on Leonardo Da Vinci's 'Last Supper'* was made. The photograph is not a digital construct and was the only frame in which the brie thrown by Marcus Wareing was captured appearing to hover by chance for a fraction of a second over the head of Gordon Ramsay in the centre of the composition.
This Photograph is part of National Portrait Gallery collection in London and available now as Limited Edition Fine Art Print.
C-type Print, Mounted and Custom framed, finished with Museum antireflective 99% UV protective art Glass;
Size: 127 x 81 cm/ 50 x 32 inches approx.
This is the original C-type and the print was signed on verso but it's been mounted on aluminium so the signed is not visible. The Artist/Photographer passed away so now the Print comes with Certificate of Authenticity from the Gallery stamped by Artist's Estate/John Reardon Archives
Limited Edition of 13, 3/13
This Photograph is an original C-type print that has been recently framed and exhibited. The framed work is in excellent condition, please view images for reference. There is a very slight and minimal dent to the bottom corner of the frame, only visible after inspection. Since we are happy to offer this with a generous discount.
Unframed Photograph is also available upon order - please enquire for more information
Unframed and unsigned new editions of this Limited Edition Print is also available.
Chefs in the Print:
• Tom Aikens (1970-), Chef. Raymond René Blanc (1949-), Chef and restaurateur.
• Michael Caines (1969-), Chef.
• Eric Chavot (1969-), Chef.
• Angela Hartnett (1968-), Restaurateur.
• Atul Kochhar (1969-), Chef and restaurateur.
• Giorgio Locatelli (1964-), Chef and restaurateur.
• Shane Osborn (1970-), Chef.
• John Burton Race (1957-), Chef and broadcaster.
• Gordon James Ramsay (1966-), Chef and restaurateur.
• Gary Rhodes (1960-2019), Chef and restaurateur.
• Michel Roux Jr (1960-), Chef and restaurateur.
• Marcus Wareing (1970-), Chef and restaurateur.
*About the 'Last Supper' - the inspiration masterpiece for the Chefs' Last Supper Portrait
The Last Supper
Leonardo da Vinci [1452-1519]
The Last Supper, painted between 1494 and the beginning of 1498, is considered perhaps the most important mural painting in the world, “a beautiful and marvelous thing”, as Giorgio Vasari wrote in his Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects, in which he speaks of Leonardo and describes the Last Supper.
Painter, architect, sculptor, engineer, inventor, mathematician, anatomist and writer, Leonardo da Vinci embodied the ideal of the many-sided man dreamed of by the Italian Renaissance.
The Last Supper offers perhaps the most complete testimony to his multifaceted genius, urge to experiment and inexhaustible curiosity. In the period when he was working on the painting, the last decade of the 15th century, Leonardo was also busy with studies of light, sound, movement and human emotions and their expression. We find these interests reflected in the Last Supper, in which, perhaps more than in any other work, Leonardo displayed his concern to depict what he called the “motions of the soul” through postures, gestures and expressions.
(Museum Cenacolo Viniciano, Italy)
About the Artist behind the contemporary version of the 'Last Supper' Portrait:
John Reardon - (1951 - 2018) was a British photographer, born in Cape Town. He studied film and photography at Birmingham University. In 1979, he was part of the photographer's group who set up Ten 8 magazine - a seminal quarterly that focused on British photography, and lasted until 1993. Reardon collaborated to publish Home Front in 1984, published by Random House and later exhibited at The Photographer's Gallery. He began as a freelance photojournalist and picture editor in 1979.
He started shooting for The Observer in the mid 1980s, beginning a distinguished career in photojournalism that saw him photographing war and humanitarian stories in Sri Lanka, Kuwait, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, to name a few.
In 1993, he joined the prestigious Independent Photographers Group set up by John Easterby. The same year, he left for war- torn Kabul, Afghanistan, and the outstanding results, displayed sumptuously in the Observer Magazine, saw his work gain global recognition at the World Press Awards. Reardon was invited to apply to join Magnum Photos; he refused, the story goes, because his portfolio "wasn't ready".
He continued to produce photo essays for the paper; including the war in Kosovo, and the aftermath of 9/11. In 2001, he began to produce ground-breaking portraits of chefs. His work is part of Autograph ABP (Handsworth Self Portraits, 1979 series) and the National Portrait Gallery collection in London including a famous 'Last Supper' shot with 12 Michelin-starred chefs featuring Gordon Ramsay, Marcus Wareing, Michel Roux Jr and Raymond Blanc. This coincided with his experimental work for the Darley Stud in 2001.
This Print hasn't been owned previously but it has been exhibited including the Somerset House, London.
As mentioned above, unframed and unsigned Prints from Limited Edition are also available.