Sep 25, 2003 - Sale 1977

Sale 1977 - Lot 93

Price Realized: $ 8,050
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 5,000 - $ 7,000
Laurence Olivier in The Entertainer.
Pen and Ink on board, 22x30 inches, oblong. Printers' marks, not affecting image, across the top. Signed lower right. 1958
"The chief character in this John Osborne play is, like Waiting for Godot's clowns, both a comic and a tragic figure. Larry Olivier was equally adept at portraying both. He had so much fun playing this decadent character falling absolutely apart, at the bitter end of his career in a backwater town. Supposedly this play is about the collapse of Great Britain after World War II, but you'd have to ask Mr. Osborne about that. I enjoyed it too much. Olivier was a master of makeup. I like it too. It helps me delineate character." HOL.
Published in The New York Times February 9, 1958.