Ah, Sophia Loren. She’s a timeless Hollywood beauty who has played the starring role in a multitude of fantasies—and no wonder. I’ve always wanted to paint her, but it’s the artistic equivalent of asking the prettiest girl in school on a date. However, faint heart never won fair hand, and it’s time to give it a shot.
With the aim of capturing her on canvas, I sketched out some studies (below) this week, and then took a straw poll of followers on my Bluesky account to help figure out which one should form the basis of a full-blown painting. It was neck and neck between a couple of the drawings for a time, but the one on the far right stormed to the finish line, right at the end.
On Friday morning, after this submission to the wisdom of crowds, I began the painting at the bottom of this article. And it stirred a childhood memory.
When I was a kid, my parents and I flew to Italy for a holiday. We stayed in Sorrento, near Naples, and one day we took a coach tour in the surrounding area. At one point the local driver pulled over on the Amalfi coastal road, at a spot overlooking a beautiful white villa perched above the cobalt-blue sea.
‘That is Sophia Loren’s house!’ the driver told us over the coach’s sound system. Turning to the view, he called down to the property.
‘Sophiaaaaa!!!’
Then he turned back to us with a smile.
‘She no there today. She in prison for tax evasion.’
It was true. In 1982, Loren spent 17 days in the jug over a dispute with Italy’s tax officials. She was eventually cleared of all charges…in 2013. That kind of staying power is unusual in stars these days.
Loren is something of a rarity in another respect, too, in that she’s a stunning-looking woman who is also a gift for a caricaturist. From the hypnotic, slanted eyes, to the pillowy lips, via the aerodynamic cheekbones and the somewhat cleft chin, there’s a lot to work with.
Her personality is uniquely appealing too, and she has a self-deprecating sense of humour. Famously, she once claimed, ‘Everything you see I owe to spaghetti.’ And she set hearts racing with comments such as, ‘A woman's dress should be like a barbed wire fence: serving its purpose without obstructing the view.’
‘There is a Fountain of Youth: It is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of the people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age.’
—Sophia Loren.
I agonised for a few days over which of her looks I should show in the final painting, and I chose a handful of reference photos that underscore the smouldering quality she has on screen. One of my sketches is based on that glamorous thing she often did in the 1960s with the neat coiffeur and the feather boa, which is glorious, obviously; but there’s something about the version of her with towering, slightly dishevelled hair and the low-cut peasant blouse that really pops.
I’m using an earthy palette on the painting: lots of raw umber, burnt sienna, yellow ochre, and ivory black, zinged up on occasion with a dash of cadmium red. Not only does this suit her colouring, but it also helps capture the late 1950s look of the reference photo.
It’s early days, and I already see some tweaks I want to make to what I have roughed out so far. But I think it’s shaping up. And, mamma mia, it’s fun.
Assuming I can bring myself to part with it, the finished item will be available in my Etsy store, in due course. Thanks for reading this far.