Paula Rego’s monumental mural filled with famous female figures and National Gallery employees will go on display in London

A ten meter long fresco created by the the late artist Paula Rego which is to be exhibited at the National Gallery in London this summer (July 20-October 29) includes images of women based on staff working at the institution in Trafalgar Square. Rego’s work, Crivelli’s garden (1990-91), inspired by The Madonna of the Rondine (The Madonna of the Swallow, after 1490) by Venetian artist Carlo Crivelli. The 15th century altarpiece will also be on display alongside Rego’s mural exploring the relationship between the two works.

Rego produced the monumental mural during her Associate Artist Residence at the National Gallery from 1990 to 1992 when she created new works for the exhibition Tales from the National Gallery, presented in the Sunley Room (December 1991-March 1992). During the residency, Rego worked in the artist’s studio, which was then in the basement of the gallery.

Gallery staff were invited by Rego to sit down for work, including Erika Langmuir and Ailsa Bhattacharya who worked in the education department at the time. “The casting is quite important because it is part of my stimulus as a painter,” said the artist. The life studies of gallery staff members who featured in the final painting are also included in the upcoming exhibition.

Priyesh Mistry, Associate Curator, Modern and Contemporary Projects at the National Gallery, said in a statement: “Paula Rego’s radical painting has always given women a voice over repression in a society and art world dominated by women. men. Her work remains as vital today as it was over 30 years ago when she first painted Crivelli’s garden and continues to inspire new generations of artists and writers. This exhibition will be an opportunity for us at the National Gallery to celebrate his legacy and his influence.

Paintings depicting biblical history and folkloric scenes from the gallery’s collection also served as inspiration for Rego, such as the mural depiction of female figures in a Mediterranean garden. The artist also used the medieval golden legenda compilation written of the Lives of the Saints by the learned monk Jacobus of Voragine around 1260, as a source.

Rego challenged the dominance of the male gaze in Western art history, according to a gallery statement, populating Crivelli’s garden with women inspired by the Virgin Mary, Saint Cecilia, Mary Magdalene, Judith and Delilah.

Mistry tells The arts journal This Crivelli’s garden “remains as radical now as he was then”, adding “Rego responded as a woman to the gallery’s collection, giving visibility to saints and mythological women who had mostly been painted by men [and also] put the women she admired, and who surrounded her in her life, in this dialogue with the history of art”.

He adds: “The [Rego] paintings were taken out of the

dining rooms prior to the start of renovations to the Sainsbury’s Wing, so they are not currently on display. We also lent the work to a retrospective of Rego’s work at the Kestner Gesellschaft in Hannover last year as well. We are still developing plans for its future location in the gallery after the exhibition so that it can continue to be enjoyed by the public.”