A.S. Byatt (Portrait of A S Byatt : Red, Yellow, Green and Blue : 24 September 1997)

1 portrait

© Estate of Patrick Heron/ DACS, 2021

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A.S. Byatt (Portrait of A S Byatt : Red, Yellow, Green and Blue : 24 September 1997)

by Patrick Heron
oil on canvas, 1997
38 1/8 in. x 47 7/8 in. (968 mm x 1216 mm) overall
Commissioned, 1998
Primary Collection
NPG 6414

Sitterback to top

Artistback to top

  • Patrick Heron (1920-1999), Painter and art critic. Artist or producer of 5 portraits, Sitter in 14 portraits.

This portraitback to top

A. S. Byatt's portrait was the third by Patrick Heron to enter the Gallery's collection, painted some 50 years after his well-known semi-cubist image of T. S. Eliot. Painted in his St. Ives studio, Heron's distinction as a leading abstract artist was relevant to the sitter's wishes: 'a picture of what I really feel like when I am working at full speed... a portrait of somebody who might conceivably write a book. What I wanted was the presence of the idea of me.'

Related worksback to top

Linked publicationsback to top

  • 100 Portraits, p. 136
  • Howgate, Sarah; Nairne, Sandy, A Guide to Contemporary Portraits, 2009, p. 4 Read entry

    The portrait of novelist A. S. Byatt (b. 1936) was the third by Patrick Heron to enter the Gallery’s Collection and was painted some fifty years after his semi-cubist image of T. S. Eliot. Heron’s distinction as an abstract artist was relevant to the sitter’s wishes: ‘What I wanted was the presence of the idea of me.’ The portrait was the result of three visits to Heron’s studio in St Ives, Cornwall.

  • Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 95
  • Various contributors, National Portrait Gallery: A Portrait of Britain, 2014, p. 253 Read entry

    The novels of acclaimed writer A. S. Byatt include The Virgin in the Garden (1978), the first in the Frederica quartet, the Booker Prize-winning Possession (1990) and The Biographer’s Tale (2000). She is also a critic and essayist, writing on art history, literary history and philosophy. When the National Portrait Gallery began discussions with the writer about a possible portrait, she expressed her admiration for the semi-cubist portrait of the poet T. S. Eliot (1949) by Patrick Heron (1920–99), now in the Gallery’s Collection. Still active at his studio in Zennor, Cornwall, Heron accepted the Gallery’s invitation to paint Byatt, and she wrote a compelling account of the process for the Gallery’s records. During her first sitting, she noted that artist and writer share an apprehension of the blank page, ‘only in the case of a portrait, this anxiety is doubled, both sitter and artist are anxious’. The final portrait emerged from drawings and paintings made over several months. It evokes the sitter’s creative intellect and is, according to Byatt when interviewed for the Guardian newspaper in 2006, ‘a picture of what I really feel like when I am working at full speed. It is a picture of somebody who might conceivably write a book.’

Placesback to top

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Events of 1997back to top

Current affairs

The Labour party - re-branded as New Labour - win a spectacular landslide election and Tony Blair becomes Prime Minister. Their electoral campaign promised that 'things can only get better' and that their priorities would be 'education, education, education.' While New Labour's 'third way' centralist approach put off some party traditionalists, it secured the popular vote.
Princess Diana and her lover Dodi Fayed die in a car crash in Paris.

Art and science

J.K. Rowling publishes Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the first of seven fantasy books chronicling the life of Harry and his friends at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry: learning magic, breaking school rules, romantic entanglements and their struggles against the evil Lord Voldemort.
Scientists at the Roslin Institute in Scotland announce that they have cloned the first mammal from an adult cell: '6LL3', or Dolly the Sheep.

International

Governor of Hong Kong Chris Patten hands the island back to China after one hundred and fifty years as a British Colony. Although sovereignty was restored to China, it was agreed that the Island would become a 'Special Administrative Region' under the 'One Country, Two Systems' principle, effectively keeping its capitalist economy and way of life for a period of 50 years.

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