Lincoln Townley | Study of a Banker Head | Red | 2025

Lincoln Townley (b. 1971)
Study of a Banker Head — Red
Ink and marker on paper | 2025 | Original

Study of a Banker Head (Red) is among the most direct and psychologically charged of Lincoln Townley's 2025 preparatory works — a close-up skull portrait executed in the urgent two-colour language of red marker and black ink that has become the defining palette of his most confrontational Banker works. Where the pencil studies reveal the compositional thinking, this work reveals the emotional temperature: the red sweeping across the face with the aggression of someone working at speed, knowing exactly what they want to say and saying it without hesitation.

The skull beneath the banker's face is fully legible here — the teeth, the hollow eyes, the structural fact of mortality beneath the professional surface. Townley has spoken of the Banker figures as psychological portraits of people whose inner lives have been replaced by the mechanisms of capital: the skull is not a morbid addition but the most honest depiction he can make. Inscribed "Study of a Banker Head 2025," signed, with the LT monogram.

Collected by Al Pacino, Sylvester Stallone, and Robbie Williams. Sold through Sotheby's, Christie's, and Bonhams. Available exclusively through Creed Gallery, Ascot, for collectors across Berkshire, Surrey, and London.

Original ink and marker on paper
2025
Hand-signed by the artist
LT monogram
Inscribed: "Study of a Banker Head 2025"
Framed
Certificate of Authenticity