Jacqueline Fahey was born in1930. She was trained at the Canterbury College School of Art, and her tutors were Bill Sutton, Ivy Fife and Colin Lovell-Smith. Russell Clark was the most modern influence, but students were left to discover Cubism on their own.

Here Picasso’s angularity and Georges Rouault’s heavy outlines may be an influence, with a Cubist still life on the wall in the background, and a painting table’s equipment outlined in black behind the figure. Painted the year after Jacqueline wed psychiatrist Fraser McDonald, this self-portrait bears the artist’s maiden name as signature in contravention of the accepted custom of taking the husband’s name after marriage.

Just 28 years old when Fahey painted ...