I created this loose watercolor portrait of Nabokov for my regular late-night New York dive bar, the KGB Bar in The East villlage.
The Cyrillic Script heading reads “Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita”.
The painting uses a limited palette of Alazarin Crimson, prussian Blue, Burnt Umber, Yellow Ochre and Cadmium Yellow Deep, executed in loose expressive wet-on-wet washes, splattering and glazing.
Below is the reference photo I used
Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov, 1899 – 1977 was the infamous author of the classic “Lolita”, published in 1956. It is narrated by a middle-aged literature professor under the pseudonym Humbert Humbert, who is obsessed with a 12-year-old girl, Dolores Haze, with whom he becomes sexually involved after he becomes her stepfather.
