Rolando, Firenze, 1949 – ON SALE – Save $1,000

Donald Friend was a master of drawing, noted for skilful depictions of the human form.

He was an inveterate traveller and lived in several places around the world.   In 1949 he visited Florence in Italy for the first time, where he set up a small Studio. Friend was overwhelmed by the beauty and history of Florence, describing it as: “… fantastically beautiful – every house, every street shows something admirable, something one has known about as long as one was conscious of art … at last a place that pours over me the richness of the civilisation I need.” 

Florence provided an abundant source of inspiration for Friend with its plethora of early Renaissance paintings, and sculptures of the human figure to view and study.    Whilst in Florence, Friend’s rendering of the male figure in pen and ink drawings developed to a masterly level, as shown in this classic pen and ink that features Ronaldo, who Friend met and fell in love with in Florence. Ronaldo became Friend’s model and he appears in a number of drawings from Friend’s period in Florence.