Of Italian descent, Paolozzi was born in Leith. He studied in Edinburgh and London and spent two years in Paris from 1947, where he produced enigmatic, bronze sculptures reminiscent of those by Giacometti. During the same period he made a series of dada and surrealist-inspired collages in which magazine advertisements, cartoons and machine parts are combined, thus anticipating the concerns of Pop Art. Alongside teaching at various art schools he developed his printmaking and sculpture. Paolozzi was particularly interested in the mass media, science and technology. This lively portrait is very similar to one which featured in The Scotsman on the 16th April 1966. It accompanied an article which discussed Paolozzi’s exhibition at the National Galleries of Scotland that year.