The Artist and her Models

A rare self-portrait of the artist at work, the present work offers a unique glimpse into Paula Rego’s working practice. Entitled The Artist and her Models, the work shows Rego’s relationship with her own image, referencing the autobiographical nature of much of her work, and the other diverse models she takes from the enchanted surroundings of her studio to create her stories. Hand on hip, Rego defiantly faces herself in the mirror. The art historian Marina Warner commented that she is ‘a painter of interior states and processes, the chaotic flux and mess of inner contradictions, not of static, achieved states of mind like a Renaissance portrait. More like a novelist, she takes you into a character’s feelings, inviting empathy without judgment’ (M. Warner, The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2004/jul/17/art.art, [accessed 12th August 2014]). This is clear in the present work, not only does it portray the artist in action, thus creating a necessary dynamism, but the piece is furnished with the props from her studio which enriches it with an opulent wider narrative. Produced in pastel, a medium the artist has used almost exclusively in her recent practice, the piece displays fluid tones and texture against the grain of the paper. We glimpse elements from her workplace in the composition: a stuffed doll, often used by the artist to create her work, and a green rubber grasshopper balancing on the top of her easel. Tony Rudolf, who has posed for Rego many times, said ‘you go into the studio now and you have this sense that you are being drawn into a story, which you are. The story is the studio, and the picture is the story within the story. Her studio’s a magical place.’ (T. Rudolf, quoted in J. McEwen, Paula Rego: Behind the Scenes, London 2008, p. 150).