STRANGE to think that the four cheeky faces resembling characters out of a Just William novel grew up into the chiselled visages we know as the Rolling Stones.

But that is precisely what compelled Sebastian Krüger, who styles himself a “new pop realist” artist, to release portraits of the band members when they were just 10 years old. It is meant as an encore to the portraits he did of the band on their 40th anniversary tour in 2002.

The caricatures of the young Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and Ronnie Wood have gone on show alongside the images of what they look like now.

The originals of the youthful portraits have been bought by a German art collector, but a limited edition has gone on sale at £2,350 for all four.

Krüger, 44, a friend of Wood, 60, whose own paintings sell for up to £300,000, says the Stones gave the project their blessing, although he found school photographs of them in books.

He is also exhibiting portraits of Clint Eastwood, Louis Armstrong, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Bono at Gallery 27 in London’s Cork Street.

The German-born artist said: “At first it wasn’t my intention to do comparison paintings – but I am very interested in changes and developments of people.

“For 25 years I have painted portraits of people crossing borders – and the Stones have certainly crossed borders in all aspects of their lives.”

Krüger started sketching the band from magazines and album covers as a teenager. Later he sent some of his drawings to the band’s management. Richards replied with a short letter which read: “Very interesting work. It must have been a good pencil.” Both he and Wood are now collectors of the artist’s work.

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