Portrait of a Portrait Painter

Michael Holroyd recalls his sittings for the late Michael Reynolds – a maverick, outsider artist.

“There are people who view having one’s portrait painted as an exercise in vanity – and for some celebrity portraiture perhaps this is true. But for me it is a disturbing experience. When I work, trying to build up pen portraits in a biographical narrative, the flow of energy goes from me towards my subjects.”

The piece lives here