Paula Rego

Paula Rego was a Portuguese-British visual artist, widely considered the pre-eminent woman artist of the late 20th and early 21st century, known particularly for her paintings and prints based on storybooks1 She was born in Lisbon in 1935, and grew up in a privileged family under the fascist dictatorship of Salazar2 She began drawing at an early age, and decided to become an artist by the age of eight3 She studied at the Slade School of Fine Art in London, where she met her future husband, the painter Victor Willing4 They married in 1959 and had three children5 Rego’s style evolved from abstract towards representational, and she favoured pastels over oils for much of her career. Her work often reflects feminism, coloured by folk-themes from her native Portugal. She explored themes of power, possession, childhood, and sexual transgression, drawing inspiration from literature, mythology, fairy tales, and personal experiences. She was influenced by artists such as Goya, Hogarth, Degas, and Picasso. She exhibited with the London Group in the 1960s, alongside David Hockney and Frank Auerbach. In 1989, she became the second artist-in-residence at the National Gallery in London, after Jock McFadyen. She received many awards and honours, including the Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, the Grand Cross of the Order of Saint James of the Sword, and the Grand Collar of the Order of Camões. She died peacefully at her home in London in 2022, at the age of 87, after a short illness.