Striking second world war portrait of Roald Dahl goes on display

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/aug/06/roald-dahl-portrait-second-world-war-matthew-smith

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A striking portrait of the author Roald Dahl, created in the aftermath of tragedy in the second world war, is now on display at the National Portrait Gallery. The artist, Matthew Smith, painted a grave image of Dahl in his RAF uniform at a time when both their lives had been scarred by the war. The portrait has been treasured by Dahl's family ever since, and has only been exhibited once before.

The author and the painter met after Dahl's plane had crashed in the Libyan desert, leaving him seriously injured and declared unfit for combat. Back in London on leave, he was struck by an exhibition of Smith's work, and tracked the artist down to his home where he was living as a virtual recluse, grieving over the deaths of two of his sons, also in the RAF. The two men became friends and the moving portrait was the result.

Unknown to both, Dahl was on the threshold of a new career which would make him one of the best loved authors of the 20th century. Dahl was posted to New York as an air attaché, where the novelist C S Forster persuaded him to write of his RAF experiences, to be used for propaganda. Dahl's account of the crash was so powerful that it was published in full in the Saturday Evening Post. That led to many more commissions and a new direction for the rest of his life, when as the author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, and many other books which became classics and have never been out of print, he became one of the best loved children's authors.

The portrait is included in an exhibition at the gallery on the work of Smith and the sculptor Frank Dobson, near contemporaries given a joint exhibition for the first time. It includes portraits of many other well known figures of their day, including the actors Jean Simmons and Margaret Rawlings, the eccentric author Osbert Sitwell, and Angelica Garnett of the Bloomsbury Group.

Curator Paul Moorhouse said the painter and sculptor were both 20th century pioneers in art. "Their portraits are wonderfully sensuous, expressive objects in themselves. This display provides an opportunity to compare these artists' remarkable achievements."

The free exhibition is at the National Portrait Gallery in London until April 2015.