To mark the first anniversary of the death of the painter Nancy Sharp (who died a year and three days ago at the age of 91) this week’s picture is her portrait of the Irish-born writer Louis MacNeice. One of only a handful of portraits created by Sharp during the course of a career so inconspicuous as to have been almost invisible, it was painted in 1938. The picture is in the process of being acquired by the National Portrait Gallery in lieu of death duties. As the only serious extant oil painting of one of the best poets of his generation, it will be a welcome addition to the national collections of art.

 

Nancy Sharp was in her late twenties when she embarked on a passionate and adulterous affair with Louis Macneice. They were introduced by W.H. Auden, a mutual friend, who saw that Sharp’s marriage to her first husband, the painter William Coldstream, was not going well. Sharp and Coldstream had met as students at the Slade School of Art. She was the daughter of an eminent doctor and his wife, had been educated at Cheltenham Ladies College and had felt stifled by her strait-laced upbringing. Attending art school and living the bohemian life in London was her rebellion against a staid and socially conservative background. Sharp and Coldstream had married very young. He was an affectionate father but inattentive husband, whose first priority was his painting. With two young daughters to look after, more or less singlehandedly, she became lonely and depressed. Auden briefly contemplated trying to start an affair with her before reminding himself that he preferred the company of men. He decided to play the part of matchmaker. “Louis could be very convenient,” he remarked, “keeping Nancy happy while Bill got on with his...

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