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Diane at 10 (1968)
This painting of the artist's middle daughter aged 10 was awarded the Halliday Prize for ‘Best Portrait’ by the Hesketh Hubbard Art Society in 1969. The Hesketh Hubbard began as an Art Club attached to the Federation of British Artists (FBA). It is now ‘London’s largest life drawing group’. First listed as a member in 1957, from the 1960s NMK regularly exhibited at the Hesketh Hubbard's annual show at the Mall Galleries, located in John Nash’s elegant Carlton House Terrace, not far from Buckingham Palace. These premises are shared with the eight royal and national societies that make up the FBA.
Diane is shown three-quarter length, facing the viewer. She is sitting on a kitchen chair, the wings of which are visible. Her face is framed by a shock of raven hair tucked behind the left ear and pulled back behind a white band. She is wearing an orange ‘skinny’ ribbed polo-neck jumper and a brown mini skirt with brass buttons, fashionable clothing in the 1960s. The artist selected a bluish-grey backcloth from his collection in the studio.
Diane at 10 anticipated the development of the artist’s style in the 1970s and 1980s when his brushstrokes became freer and bolder than in his earlier work.