By Kishor Napier-Raman and Stephen Brook
Ralph Heimans is one of the world’s best-known portrait painters. He is adored by the royal family, having painted official portraits of King Charles, The Queen and Prince Philip, not to mention the imprimatur of PM 26 Kevin Rudd, who tapped him to fashion his official prime ministerial portrait, which hangs in Parliament House.
Heimans categorises his work as “royal portraits” and “cultural icons”. However, his previous output is merely the entree to the main meal, unveiled on Wednesday – a joint portrait of Visy chairman Anthony Pratt, a CBD favourite, and his late father, Richard.
Visy chairman Anthony Pratt, left, and artist Ralph Heimans unveil “The Chairmen”– a portrait of Pratt and his late father Richard.Credit: Michael Evans
The two-for-one portrait – creatively entitled The Chairmen – pays tribute to the two men who collectively have run cardboard packing conglomerate Visy for more than half a century.
So it was smiles all around at Visy’s Southbank headquarters in Melbourne when Heimans and Pratt dramatically peeled away the rich red curtain to reveal the grand scale painting of father and son strolling along the verandah of their fabled Kew mansion Raheen dressed in royal blue suits.
It was another former PM, in this case Paul Keating, who introduced Heimans to Pratt, who quickly commissioned him to paint Charles when he was Prince of Wales and later Pratt’s two children, Leon and Lilly.
Pratt doesn’t say much to the media, but was moved to comment on the biographical nature of Heimans’ paintings.
“I recalled the painting hanging in every Marriott Hotel lobby of JW Marriott and his son Bill so I thought why not take the same idea to Ralph,” he said. “The result is magnificent.”
Finer details of the rendering will keep Prattologists busy. We were half expecting US warbler Katy Perry, who staged a lucrative and well-publicised gig at Raheen for select invitees in February. But the painting has a solitary mien. Through the window of Raheen, the Leon and Lilly portrait is seen, as well as a painting of Richard as a boy with his parents, Leon and Paula Pratt. “We wanted to say something about the passing down of wisdom through the generations and I hope this portrait is a fitting testament to Richard’s legacy,” Heimans said.
This in no way explains the elaborate harp standing in the centre of the room. Go figure. We are certainly trying to.
Dom Perrottet made time for one last fundraiser before heading to the USCredit: John Shakespeare
DATE WITH DOM
We told you so.
Just weeks after CBD hinted that Dominic Perrottet had a hot new job with a global resources company lined up, the former NSW premier announced he’d be packing up his family of nine and heading to Washington DC to take over BHP’s US head of corporate and external relations.
But before getting on the plane, Perrottet had time for one last Liberal fundraiser, being guest of honour at an exclusive big money luncheon for shadow energy minister James Griffin at CBD Japanese joint Toko on Tuesday.
Perrottet had the pumped-up crowd eating out of his hand with stories from his (brief) leadership. He also mentioned that he’d already been in touch with another semi-recent arrival to the Washington DC swamp, ambassador Kevin Rudd.
It was a full house, with plenty of hopefuls punted onto the waiting list and thousands raised for the Liberal coffers.
That’s particularly good news for Griffin – with Liberal insiders sceptical about opposition leader Mark Speakman making it to the next election, the whispers about the fresh-faced member for Manly becoming the next party leader are getting a bit louder.
JACKO’S BACK
The Daily Mail, with its salacious headlines, dizzying UX and penchant for ripping off our stories, has always been a guilty pleasure of this column.
So we couldn’t help but notice when the local digital offshoot of the Fleet Street tabloid published a story about the standard of the accommodation provided to some staff of Nine, the Olympic broadcast rights holder and owner of this masthead.
Even more intriguing was the byline: Steve Jackson. Breaking news: Jacko is back on the tools.
Regular readers will recall that Jacko, a veteran master of the tabloid dark arts, was drafted as a spin doctor by the NSW Police after a series of wobbly media appearances by commissioner Karen Webb.
Within two weeks, Jackson’s contract was torn up amid allegations other police were blindsided by the appointment, and the growing scandal about Jackson’s former employer, Seven’s Spotlight and its attempts to land former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann to hear his response to Brittany Higgins’ rape allegations.
All the gory allegations about Seven paying Lehrmann, the scale of which emerged after Jacko’s dumping by the cops, were given ample coverage in the Daily Mail.
Now, Jackson is on the other side, and has been beavering away since last week. He declined to comment when CBD came calling.
And what of Liam Bartlett, the journalist who actually did the interviewing, but escaped the backlash better than Macavity the Mystery Cat could himself? It seems he is still at Seven, having survived the cull of hundreds of staff, but lost out in becoming the face of the program to Michael Usher, if such a thing be a prize.
Taylor Auerbach, Spotlight’s junior-burger turned Federal Court sensation, has been making videos of himself singing into the webcam.