For Jane (Butterfly) | 2022, Acrylic on board, signed by Damien Hirst, a unique work.

Damien Hirst
For Jane (Butterfly), October 2022

Acrylic on board
Signed by the artist
Unique work
Approx. 11 1/2 x 16 1/2 inches
Framed

A signed and unique original painting by Damien Hirst, offered here on the market for the first time. The work depicts a stylised butterfly set against a vivid blue ground, animated by hearts, floral motifs, and freely drawn linear forms in pink, white, yellow, and green. There is an immediacy and openness to the composition that speaks to Hirst’s ongoing engagement with themes of life, fragility, love, and transformation, rendered here with a directness rarely found in his more formal studio works.

The painting was gifted directly by Hirst to his close friend and long-time collaborator Jane Savidge, and has remained in her private collection since its creation. Savidge played a notable role in Hirst’s wider cultural projects beyond the conventional gallery system, first representing him in 1998 in connection with Fat Les’ Vindaloo project, before later managing his Art Tube ’01 project and Keith Allen’s Glastonbury Play, which featured Hirst’s stage designs.

As a personal gift rather than a commissioned or commercially released work, the painting sits entirely outside Hirst’s editioned production and formal exhibition history. Its importance lies in its status as a one-off, signed work, retained privately by a key figure within his inner creative circle and unseen by the market until now.

As co-founder and head of public relations company Savage & Best, Jane Savidge is widely credited as being one of the main instigators of the Britpop musical movement that swept the UK in the mid 1990s. During this time Savage and Best represented many of the artists associated with the scene including Suede, Pulp, The Verve, Elastica.