This is a fascinating exhibition that shows the ferment, the maelstrom of ideas and the rather undervalued richness of British art in the first half of the 20th century

He first came to national attention aged 24, as the outstanding talent of the Kitchen Sink painters - artists who believed ordinary people’s lives were the correct subject for their work.

Jean reading, c.1954 Jean reading, 1953 A Carlisle City Councillor with Jean and David Bratby, 1955 John Randall Bratby born July 19, 1928 in Wimbledon (London), UK died July 20, 1992 (64) in Hastings (Sussex), UK more: Wikipedia Google pictures BBC-paintings National portrait gallery Louise Kosman

Bratby, John Randall 1928-1992 British AR, Two Pattis Two Johns, Venice. 48 x 36 ins., (122 x 91.5 cms.), Oil on Canvas, Signed, Condition excellent. In the last years of his life Bratby painted innumerable pictures of his wife, Patti often in extraordinary poses and outfits. The clue to all this concentration of subject can be illustrated by what he wrote in the introduction for his exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. 'In 1990 I turned to something different. I painted my wife from enlarged photographs. A former actress, she posed like a forties or fifties pin-up girl, with a laughing or smiling face and poses reminiscent of of the style of Betty Grable. They were theatrical, false, superficial faces that she put on. She had for my photo sessions become a fantasy being. Yet only she would do. No other female.'

Window, Dartmouth Row, Blackheath by John Bratby c.1954-1956 Oil on Hardboard (Government Art Collection)