Artwork
Babe Rainbow
Babe Rainbow is a print by Sir Peter Blake. It dates from 1968 and is held in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
About this work
She’s twenty-three, born in New Cross, and wrestles mostly in Europe and the USA.
Peter Blake made this 1968 print called *Babe Rainbow*.
It shows a made-up lady wrestler with a broken nose and a wild past.
She’s twenty-three, born in New Cross, and wrestles mostly in Europe and the USA.
Blake has painted other wrestlers like Doktor K Tortur and Irish Lord X.
He likes mixing pop culture with art, using images from magazines and fairs.
This one started as a collage before becoming a print.
Look up Sir Peter Blake next.
Overview
Babe Rainbow is a 1968 print by British pop artist Sir Peter Blake, produced in an edition of 1,000 for Dodo Designs. The work depicts a fictional female wrestler, presented with a broken nose and a vivid, comic‑book style narrative. Printed on tin—a material choice uncommon for the period—the image continues Blake’s series of imagined wrestlers.
Subject & Meaning
The titular character, Babe Rainbow, is described as a twenty‑three‑year‑old competitor born in New Cross, London, who performs mainly across Europe and the United States. She is portrayed as the daughter of the notorious fictional figure Doktor K Tortur, linking her to Blake’s broader roster of invented wrestlers such as Irish Lord X, Kamikaze and Les Orchidées Noires.
Technique & Style
Blake’s process began with a collage assembled from magazine covers, fairground ephemera and other popular visual sources, reflecting his fascination with mass‑media imagery. The collage was then transferred to a print format, employing bold colours and graphic outlines characteristic of 1960s British pop art.
History & Provenance
Born in Kent, Blake studied at the Royal College of Art, where his interest in popular culture materialized into a leading role within the 1960s pop art movement. After achieving fame for the cover of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, he created Babe Rainbow as part of a commercial commission, which was issued by Dodo Designs in 1968.
Context
The work sits within Blake’s ongoing exploration of celebrity, sport and spectacle, using the fictional wrestler motif to comment on the theatricality of popular entertainment. By situating a female combatant in a traditionally male arena, the print also gestures toward shifting gender dynamics in the late 1960s cultural landscape.
Artist & collection
Artist
Sir Peter Thomas Blake (born 25 June 1932) is an English pop artist. He co-created the sleeve design for the Beatles' 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. His other works include the covers for two of the…
