Paula Rego’s work goes to auction with an estimated one million pounds
At about 1.80 by 1.20 meters, the pastel on paper painted by Paula Rego in 2006 is part of a batch of 35 pieces of contemporary art that will be offered for sale at auction on Thursday.
Throughout her career, Paula Rego constructed a visual language inspired by the literary and cultural visions of the 19th century, which intertwines various historical references with elements of her own life.
This is the case of the piece that goes to auction, a painting that mirrors the aesthetics of a bygone era and portrays a scene inspired by the famous novel “Nada” by the Spanish writer Carmen Laforet, originally published in 1945, and later translated into English in the middle from the 2000s, the version that Paula Rego read.
The text follows the story of an orphan girl, Andrea, who is going to live with an aunt in Barcelona, a city where she starts a series of complex friendships and where she will discover a world very different from yours, made up of ambiguous and troubled characters, who they live, in humiliating poverty, the cruel years of the Francoist occupation.
Paula Rego was elevated, in 2004, to the Grand Cross of the Military Order of Sant’Iago da Espada de Portugal by President Jorge Sampaio and in 2010 she was distinguished by Queen Isabel II, with the rank of Lady Commander of the Order of the British Empire, by his contribution to the arts.
