Victor Willing

Victor Willing (b. 1928, Alexandria, Egypt, d. 1988, North London, United Kingdom) was a British painter known for his spare, incisive portraiture and figure studies as well as his Neo-expressionist later works. The artist studied painting at the Slade School of Fine Art from 1949 through 1953. During this time he was introduced to the work of Francis Bacon and invited him to speak at the school, setting the grounds for a lifelong artistic friendship. Following his inclusion in notable group exhibitions at the Institute of Contemporary Art in London, which established him as a key figure in the British figurative painting movement, Willing had a breakout solo show at Hanover Gallery in 1955, leading to his paintings being added to the permanent collection of the Arts Council of Great Britain. 

Willing followed his wife, artist Paula Rego, to Portugal in 1958 after the birth of their first child. The couple lived and worked in Ericeira, Portugal for a decade before returning to London upon Willing’s diagnoses of multiple sclerosis. In London, and with failing health, he began painting with renewed energy, and his work took on a wilder, fantastic verve. During the last decade of his life, the artist enjoyed substantial critical and commercial success, and he was the subject of a retrospective at Whitechapel Gallery in 1986, two years before his death.