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The winner of the 2024 $50,000 Richard Lester Prize for Portraiture is Ben Howe!
Ben Howe's Cartagena Library reminded the selection committee of the German artist Hans Holbein's The Ambassadors (1533). It's a portrait of two self-possessed men sitting in a library staring confidently at the viewer, surrounded by the finer things of life. But the twist is that they are not the usual inhabitants of the room but playing a role. They are two gay men portrayed as their straight friends in a room that is not theirs. (The judges hope they have got this right.) But it doesn't really matter. It's a beautifully done painting that remains permanently enigmatic like that great Holbein.
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