DAME PAULA REGO D.B.E., R.A. (BRITISH/PORTUGESE, 1935-2022)
Wendy and Hook III
signed 'Paula Rego' (lower left)
watercolour and ink on paper
29.7 x 41 cm. (12 x 16 1/4 in.)
Executed in 1992

Provenance
With Marlborough Gallery, London, where purchased by family of the present owner

Exhibited
London, Marlborough Gallery, Paula Rego Peter Pan & Other Stories, 3 Dec 1992-30 Jan 1993, cat.no.14 (col.ill)

“My paintings are stories, but they are not narratives, in that they have no past and future.” - Dame Paula Rego

Paula Rego was born in 1935 in Lisbon and studied at Slade Art School. She would become, and still is to this day, one of the most important figurative painters of the 20th century.

Rego’s commitment to the most traditional forms of artmaking is exemplified in her illustrations, prints, and large scale paintings. Her works are dominated by a variety of sources, inspired by children’s stories, Portuguese folk-tales and the artist’s own imagination. In an interview in 2017, when talking about L.S Lowry, Rego commented on the lack of drawing done at art schools and how it was “a great shame”. Drawing was such a vital part of her experience at Slade, and she remarked in the same interview, “I drew from my head I drew all sorts of things”. Her successful draughtsmanship is clear in many examples of her work where she portrayed folk-themes, fairytales and myths. Imagination, creativity and storytelling are so vital within her works and this work is no exception. It was shown at the Marlborough Gallery, in their exhibition, Paula Rego Peter Pan & Other Stories, in 1992. The execution of these drawings followed The Folio Society’s nomination of Rego to illustrate a new edition of Peter Pan. The collections of drawings and watercolours capture so deeply Rego’s commitment to displaying complexities beneath the surface within stories. In this case the psychological complexities of J M Barrie’s book were displayed in many examples of drawings, watercolours, etchings and aquatints