BANKSY
The Rude Lord, 2006
Oil on canvas in original artist’s frame
88.6 x 76.8 cm (35 x 30 1/4 inches)

Provenance
Lazarides Gallery, London
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner

The Rude Lord is based on an 18th Century portrait by Thomas Beach that Banksy defaced by overpainting a flip-off middle finger. The legend says Banksy bought the original at auction for GBP 2,000. In this delightfully irreverent piece, Banksy transforms the conventions of aristocratic portraiture into a visual act of rebellion. Indeed, Banksy takes the air out of aristocratic pomp with one brutally simple gesture. A stately 18th-century gentleman, rendered in the tradition of grand oil portraiture, turns his gaze toward us with dignified poise, while boldly raising his middle finger. The contrast is hilarious, jarring, and completely Banksy.

“If you want to survive as a graffiti writer when you go indoors I figured your only option is to carry on painting over things that don’t belong to you there either.”

By co-opting a classical portrait and inserting a vulgar hand gesture, Banksy disrupts the visual language of power and decorum. The opulent frame and Old Master style become props in a performance of subversion, where status, heritage, and etiquette are gleefully dismantled by a single raised digit. It is both a mockery of inherited privilege and a broader statement on cultural authority. Who decides what’s tasteful? What’s sacred? The Rude Lord answers with a smirk and a finger, proving that sometimes the most radical art doesn’t scream, it simply flips you off in silk and cravat.