10 Minutes With ... Anthony Green

The Royal Academician Speaks to Katie Mccabe About Painting His Life Story, and Explains Why He’s Never Afraid to Be a Lit Tle Sentimental.

- Katie Mccabe

The key painting in your upcoming exhibition was first started in 1963, could you tell us a bit about it?

The exhibition is about that one painting [The Fur Coat, ‘Hazana’]; it’s a full size painting of my mother, now dead, alas. It describes her second marriage, to my stepfather, and it has real objects incorporated into the picture: her mink coat, her hat, bag and her silk scarf.

What was your mother like?

She was born into an immigrant French family in London, and she was very cuddly and strikingly kind of pretty without actually being beautiful. She had a rather large nose... She had red lips and very kind brown eyes; she dressed very chicly, in the 1940's and 1950's in the United Kingdom, somebody who dressed with a bit of French flair stood out in a crowd.

Most of your work is intensely personal; you’ve been painting your wife for many years…

Yes, virtually every member of the family! Mary, my wife, is the catalyst that started me off; that is, to paint pictures about something I know, in the sense that you are a world expert about who you are and who you know. You are not Napoleon; you’re just you. It’s about the only thing you’re an expert on: your environment, your close family, friends, enemies, that’s what you’re an expert at. I’m an expert at my little world.

How does your wife, Mary, feel about being a muse for these paintings, does she get involved in the process?