Brash portrait shows two sides of his character

By AUDREY YOUNG political reporter

There is something a little different about Don Brash's newly finished portrait, which will join the row of former governors on the wall outside the Reserve Bank boardroom.

It has a simple silver wooden frame to start with, not the more ornate gold ones framing the other eight.

But it is also a little bigger.

"Nought to 3 per cent bigger," says artist Marianne Muggeridge, with a wry reference to the inflation target managed by the governor.

The bank commissioned the work and she was chosen by Dr Brash, who left the job after 14 years to become a National MP in July, and now its finance spokesman.

Muggeridge, a Wellington-based artist and winner of two of the three national awards of the New Zealand Portrait Gallery, delivered it to the bank just before Christmas.

Dr Brash was not a willing participant to begin with.

He suggested that a good-quality photograph would be quicker and cheaper.

That was rejected by the bank, which has had formal portraits done of every governor since it was formed in 1934.

So he sat for the artist in her studio for about six sessions over about 15 hours.

"She's a delightful person and I really enjoyed talking to her," he said. "My difficulty was I was meant to be sitting impassively, and not talking too much.

"She kept asking me questions. I was dying to answer them but no sooner had I started talking than she said, 'You'd better stop talking'."

Asked if he liked the painting, Dr Brash said: "I'm not really a good judge of portrait artists or paintings.

"To me, it makes me look more serious than I think I am but then that is obviously how she perceived me."

Muggeridge explains how she has painted two sides of his character.

The left-hand side of his face was his serious side, the right-hand side his more relaxed, "more optimistic", she said, demonstrating by covering her hand over half at a time.

"They come together to create his personality."