When the collector Gordon Lambert commissioned this portrait, Ballagh seized the opportunity to experiment with the genre. The portrait is both figurative and abstract as Lambert holds an exact replica of a painting by Josef Albers, one of his ‘Homage to the Square’ series, that Lambert been instrumental in purchasing for the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery. Ballagh drew on advertising techniques – such as the unframed cut-out and screenprinted photograph of Lambert – combined with a sculptural cast of his hands to create a new kind of portrait that captured Lambert’s urbane lifestyle.