Portraiture has always been a fundamental part of Hambling’s practice. The British Museum, National Portrait Gallery and Tate are among the many public collections which hold her portraits.

The works in this new series are small in scale but big in impact. Their source is the artist’s observation and imagination coupled with her relish of the sensuality and unending adventure of oil paint. Rare in contemporary art, these compassionate and incisive depictions are both economic and visceral, serious and witty, cutting to the quick of the human condition.