Signed and dated lower right
Provenance: Private collection Geneva

The subject of this painting is possibly Omu, an Ibadian boy the artist had met in London through a mutual friend, who subsequently modelled for friend during 1952. In colouring and composition Boy with Guitar draws on elements of Renaissance portraiture, evidence of Friend’s sojourns in Italy during the early 1950’s.

“While in Italy he spent a lot of time looking at Byzantine and early Renaissance art, particularly frescoes, and this reinforced his interest in painting small icon pictures.”
Reference: B. Pearce, Donald Friend 1915 – 1989 Retrospective, Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney, 1990, p.15.

Friend returned to Australia from Europe in 1953 and settled in Hill End. His paintings from this time reveal a sensibility to the colours of the Australian outback, returning to a richness of colouring as seen in his Sofala subjects of the previous decade.  
Donald Friend is represented in the Australian National Gallery, all state galleries, many regional galleries as well as many other important public collections both in Australia and overseas.