Dame Paula Rego

(1935 - 2022)

Paula Rego was a Portuguese-British painter and printmaker whose work explored power, gender, folklore, politics, and personal narrative through psychologically charged figurative imagery. Born in Lisbon, she studied at the Slade School of Fine Art in London, where she developed connections with a generation of post-war British artists while maintaining strong ties to Portugal. She was elected a Royal Academician in 1990 and appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2010. Rego became internationally recognised for paintings and prints that drew on fairy tales, literature, nursery rhymes, and autobiographical themes, often presenting unsettling narratives through dramatic staging and expressive figuration. Printmaking formed a major part of her practice from the 1980s onwards, particularly etching and lithography, which allowed her to explore serial imagery and narrative sequence. Rego worked extensively with Curwen Studio and later Curwen Chilford Prints, collaborating with Stanley Jones and Kip Gresham on lithographs and screenprints. Among the most notable of these projects was Jane Eyre (2002), a series of lithographs created with Stanley Jones inspired by Charlotte Brontë’s novel. The series reflects Rego’s sustained interest in literary narrative and female psychology, and forms an important part of her later printmaking practice.