Terry Doyle's FOR SALE Galleries! :: 1. MOVIE POSTER paintings

For Sale - GBP 800 - THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN (1981) - movie poster painting (prototype)

Artist: Vic Fair (Painter)

5 Comments - 2,687 Views - 3 Likes

For Sale - GBP 800 - THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN (1981) - movie poster painting (prototype) Comic Art

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Additional Images:

Vic Fair, 2013

Finished quad poster design (mostly using photographic imagery)

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Artwork Details

Title:	For Sale - GBP 800 - THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN (1981) - movie poster painting (prototype)
Artist:	Vic Fair (Painter)
Media Type:	Paint - Acrylic
Art Type:	Prelim
For Sale Status:	For Sale - GBP 800
Views:	2,687
Likes on CAF:	3 4
Comments:	5
Added to Site:	9/1/2016
Comic Art Archive:

Description

Vic Fair prototype artwork for the highly-regarded 1981 movie, THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT’S WOMAN.

“Actors Meryl Streep, Jeremy Irons, Hilton McRae, Emily Morgan and Charlotte Mitchell under Karel Reisz's superb, sensitive and fluid direction bring Harold Pinter and John Fowles screenplay to the screen in stunning fashion. Some of the scenes will live in the memory for a long time, so powerful are the visuals.

Set in 19th Century England it is the story of a chance meeting between Sarah (Meryl Streep), an eerily beautiful woman, and Charles (Jeremy Irons), a biologist about to be married; they have a brief but passionate affair but her deep sadness and past force her to leave him. The movie works on two chronological levels, switching seamlessly between the two parallel stories which mirror each other in many ways.

Visually, this film is stunningly beautiful and haunting in the way the story of Sarah, a Victorian outcast, unfolds to reveal her history.”

For his prototype artwork, displaying a high degree of finish (for what is effectively a prelim), British artist Vic Fair chose a simple but very effective design of the Meryl Streep character’s portrait enveloping a key moment from the movie. As good as the idea might have been, the design was rejected in favour of what appears to be a mostly photographic image for the resulting movie poster campaign (that still managed to retain much of Fair’s original concept).

“In the history of British film posters there are few characters as significant and influential as the designer and artist Vic Fair. During a career that spanned close to forty years, many of them spent as part of the same ever-evolving agency, Vic lent his inimitable style to several of the most iconic British movie posters ever printed. He designed marketing campaigns for most of the big film studios and distributors, including for the likes of Hammer Films and all of the posters for the very British ‘Confessions…’ series of bawdy comedies. Over the years, Vic also developed a strong working relationship with many of the British film industry’s leading directors, including Nicolas Roeg, Terry Gilliam and Michael Winner.

One of the things that really set Vic apart from his contemporaries were his skills at develop-ing concepts that were unique and stood out from what was often a sea of other ideas, de-pending on how many design agencies a distributor might have been working with. He had a natural talent for concepts that used ingenious juxtaposition of elements to create surprising layouts and he wasn’t one to shy away from risqué concepts, many of which unfortunately never made onto a printing press. Many of these designs did, however, make it through to the end of the process and clearly demonstrate his cheeky sense of humour.”

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About the Owner

	Terry Doyle
Joined:	August 2004
Last Login:	August 2025
Country:	UNITED KINGDOM
On CAF:	Terry's Want List Artworks Commented On Liked Art Site Activity on CAF

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Ashley and Bill Batchelor
Member Since 2014

Posted on 9/1/2016

Love Vic Fair's work. This is wonderful. I am working my way through the book on british posters now. My God the book is huge and so many wonderful paintings and posters. No more original art posters. It's all digital and photo crap now. Crying shame. Well done, Terry. If you get a chance check out my pictures of faded Wilsons. What is your solution to fixing these faded masterpieces?

Terry Doyle
Member Since 2004

Posted on 9/1/2016

Ashley and Bill Batchelor wrote:

Thanks, Ashley. I have a few more movie poster originals heading my way very soon, so feel free to look back over the course of the next week. Yeah, I saw your updates a short while ago. Short of having them re-painted (a big no-no in my book), I've really no idea of any practical way to restore (faded) painted art, sorry.

Ashley and Bill Batchelor
Member Since 2014

Posted on 9/1/2016

Are you getting in any horror poster art? I love the horror art posters from the 1970s.

Terry Doyle
Member Since 2004

Posted on 9/1/2016

Ashley and Bill Batchelor wrote:

Are you getting in any horror poster art? I love the horror art posters from the 1970s.

I already have a 1966 Hammer Horror poster original on my CAF, so that particular itch has already been scratched! Getting in a nice science-fiction example soon . . .

Rubén DaCollector's Paperback Art
Member Since 2005

Posted on 9/1/2016

Wow, very cool piece. The fact that a prelim exists for a poster for which photography was used, is amazing! Congratulations, Terry.

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