Johnny Depp painted a self-portrait with Heard during the trial. It’s on sale for €2500 – NiT

Johnny Depp painted a self-portrait with Heard during the trial. It’s on sale for €2500

It is called “Five” and was conceived during the “dark period” of the high-profile court case. You can buy it at the British Gallery.

“Five” is the name of the piece.

Johnny Depp has decided to turn his years-long legal battle against his ex-wife Amber Heard into art. During an “intense” period of that process, the actor painted “Five”, a self-portrait with a limited number of copies that would be for sale in a London gallery for a short time.

“It was portrayed in a time that was, let’s say, a little dark, a little confused,” he said in a presentation video quoted by the Associated Press agency. The name is due to the fact that it began to be featured in 2019, the fifth year of her legal confrontation with Heard, after she filed for divorce in 2016.

“I believe this is his most personal work to date. He looked at her eyes again and again. When we think about it, we realize that it is a beautiful picture. But when you focus on the eyes, there is something very deep and tragic in them,” says Ian Wetherby-Blyth, manager of Castle Fine Art, the British gallery in charge of marketing the painting.

The gallery was already responsible for making Depp’s first art collection, “Friends and Heroes”, commercially available, which sold out. Copies of “Five” are on sale until August 1 and cost €2,500 each.

The reference used by the actor is a frame from an advertisement recorded by Jean-Baptiste Mondino to promote the Dior perfume “Sauvage”. Remember, the brand not only removed Depp from his promotional position during the entire legal process, but also signed a new millionaire contract with the actor this year.

The ruling opposing the former couple had its origins in an opinion piece by Heard: The actress published an article in the “Washington Post” in 2018 where she described herself as a victim of domestic violence. In turn, Depp believed that she had defamed him and took the matter to court. The legal battle ended in June 2022 and the verdict supported the actor’s arguments. Faced with the verdict, Heard decided to back down and settled with her ex-husband’s lawyers for a $1 million payout. Depp decided to donate this amount.

Nevertheless, at the time, Hurd declared that it was “a difficult decision” and that the agreed amount was “not an act of concession”. “It is important for me to say that I never chose this. I stood up for my truth and in doing so destroyed my life as I knew it.