Like many works from the period, Meeting Adelia, 2013, is inspired by Portugal, Rego’s birthplace, and encompasses Portuguese themes. These works borrow in particular from the great nineteenth-century novelist Eça de Queirós and Meeting Adelia is one of a number of works inspired by his 1887 novel The Relic. De Queirós’ story, a satire of religion and greed in equal measure, tells the tale of dissolute anti-hero Teodorico who, desperate to inherit his pious aunt’s riches, feigns her obsessive faith and travels to the Holy Land on a pilgrimage in search of a relic to restore her health and prove his devotion.

Returning to his aunt, he unwittingly he gives her the negligee worn by a prostitute he has fallen in love with while away and is promptly disinherited. Meeting Adelia depicts Teodorico’s first encounter with the prostitute Adelia.

About the artist

Born in 1935 in Lisbon, Portugal, Dame Paula Rego RA lives and works in London. The largest and most comprehensive retrospective of Rego’s work to date takes place at Tate Britain (7 July–24 October 2021). Additional current solo institutional exhibitions include Museum De Reede, Antwerp, Belgium (8 July–4 October 2021).

Recent major solo exhibitions include Paula Rego: Obedience and Defiance, curated by Catherine Lampert, which travelled from MK Gallery, Milton Keynes to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh in 2019–2020 and was on view at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin from September 2020–May 2021. Her work is in the collections of major museums including the British Museum, London, UK; National Gallery, London, UK; National Portrait Gallery, London, UK; Tate, UK and the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, UK.