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TATE COMMISSION
Project type
Portrait
Date
July 2026
Location
London
Tate Collective Commission
Ink on paper, A2, 2026
In July 2026 I was commissioned by Tate Collective to create an original artwork in response to the James McNeill Whistler exhibition at Tate Britain.
Visiting the exhibition, I was struck by a profound parallel between Whistler's practice and my own. Whistler believed that "painting from nature should be done from home" — he would observe a scene, absorb it entirely, and then recreate it from memory in his studio. He had no camera. No references. Just what he remembered and felt.
I set myself the same challenge. I met my model Ludovica on the Thames bank, observed her, and went home to draw her portrait entirely from memory. No photographs. No references. Just what I carried with me.
The result is "Ludovica" — a portrait that exists somewhere between memory and imagination, between what I saw and what I felt. As Whistler would say, art for art's sake. As I would say — imperfectly perfect.
Commissioned by Tate Collective, Tate Britain, London, 2026
Published on @tatecollective
