It is not the behind of the person painted, but rather the person behind the brushwork in the Anton Oliver portrait that prompted Chris Collins to buy it.
Dunedin picture framer Chris Collins paid $16,750 for the picture of the 1.84m, 111kg All Black standing naked against a wall.
The work, painted by Otago artist Simon Richardson, is titled Back Field.
But Collins did not buy the piece because he is rugby-mad, he bought it because he adores Richardson's "exquisite work". He admires Oliver, also an art-lover, for whom Collins has framed many paintings over the years.
"To me it's not a painting of an All Black. It's a painting of Simon's - an intelligent guy whose work I really admire."
Collins, an art-lover who owns a houseful of works, framed Back Field and six other portraits by Richardson for his exhibition An Otago Perspective, which opens on Friday at Auckland's Jonathan Grant Galleries.
