Paula Rego

Edward Totah Gallery, London
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner in 1982

This rare, early work by Paula Rego illustrates the artist's "homely" themes that she adopted in her work between 1981-82. As with much of her work of the past twenty years, this series shows her borrowing from children’s books and illustrating theatrical settings with a series of masquerading creatures. Rego stages a fluid exchange of identities between human and animal domains in order to disguise the operatic themes of family romance. Here we see the subject of confession and the internalisation of authority between parent and child. There is a sense of compassion and ridicule, yet the aim is to discover and disclose rather than to moralise.