Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Distinguished painter and one of Britain's finest portrait painters.
On the island
Eight records
Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61 (slow movement)Favourite
Well that takes me back to days when I was very young in my native city.
Well, I'm a Scott and I would like a song of my country.
I'd like something that would recall Paris, the Paris I knew when I was young.
Piano Trio in B-flat major, Op. 97 'Archduke' (slow movement)
Alfred Cortot, Jacques Thibaud, Pablo Casals
Something I heard long ago, and I would like to hear it again.
A Midsummer Night's Dream, Op. 61 (Scherzo)
Benno was an old friend and a great master.
I like that because it's a very beautiful prayer, and I think someone there alone on a desert island would be in need of prayer.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:06Do you think you could endure the loneliness of a desert island existence?
Well, I could endure it for a time. I think I might even enjoy it, but I can't say for how long, because I'm rather a gregarious animal.
Presenter asks
1:22Is there any one thing you can think of that you'd be glad to have got away from?
Well, I think of course of traffic jams, diesel fuel.
Presenter asks
10:10Mr. Gunn, how many sittings do you reckon on for a portrait on average?
Well, that is something which I must by [buy]. Everyone who comes sits. And I didn't say I like to have at least eight. Probably twelve. And if I need more, I like to be sure I can have more.
Presenter asks
14:47Critics have from time to time criticized your work using words like 'photographic accuracy'. Would you like to comment on that?
The keepsakes
The book
I thought a lot about that. And I think on the whole I'd like the largest and best.
The luxury
Art materials (paper, pencil, canvas, paint and brushes)
Freed from the arbitrary demands of portraiture, it's just possible I might produce something which [would] make a little contribution to human vision.
Well, yes. Of course, portraiture mix [must] the math[s] … One has to produce something to the like [likeness]. After all, people, we want a port[rait], we want something which is like the sentiment. I don't use the target, but I think I do make things look like [them].
Presenter asks
15:24How do you like to get to know your sitters? Do you like to sit them down in your studio and walk round them, or do you like to get to know them socially first?
[The] first sitting is given over to making a sketch, on a small scale proportionate to the canvas I'm going to paint on. And that enables me to get to know something of my subject. I sometimes get the design which suits me for the picture, sometimes not, but at all events I find out about him. And he discovers that sitting is not such an ordeal as he imagined.
Presenter asks
16:17What about non-representational painting? Does it mean anything to you?
Well, no, I'm afraid it doesn't mean much to me, but I have been misquoted a good deal about this. You see for me painting is a reflection of the period. It's a part of history. It all tells its story. And I suppose these more modern abstractions are the expression of a period that lives in uncertainty.
“I could endure it for a time. I think I might even enjoy it, but I can't say for how long, because I'm rather a gregarious animal.”
“I painted King George the Sixth and … that portrait of the Queen. … I was selected by the Queen to paint the state portrait in her robes of state after her coronation.”
“It so happened that the last sitting I had at Downing Street was on the day that the Prime Minister left Downing Street to go to Admiralty House. … As we were sitting down to lunch, he said, 'You know, I thought of something. Do you realize you are the last guest in Downing Street?' And in fact I was. … I put it on record that I was positively the last guest of a Prime Minister of the old Downing Street, and that's a splendid distinction.”
“I think it would be the violin concerto.”
“I'd want a lot of materials. I'd want paper and pencil. I'd want canvas, paint and brush. Though who knows, I might take to throwing the paint after time. … Freed from the arbitrary demands of portraiture, it's just possible I might produce something which would make a little contribution to human vision. And who knows might enrich the dealers at some later date.”