Self-Portrait

''Painfully honest on what it means to be a woman who puts art first, no matter what'' Olivia Laing

I''m not a portrait painter. If I''m anything, I have always been an autobiographer.

In Self-Portrait, Celia Paul reveals a life truly lived through art. She moves effortlessly through time, in words and images, from her arrival at the Slade School of Fine Art at sixteen, through a profound and intense affair with the older and better-known artist Lucian Freud, to the practices of her present-day studio. This intimate memoir is, at its heart, about a young woman navigating the path to artistic freedom, with all the sacrifices and complications that entails.

''Powerful'' Zadie Smith

''Engrossing'' Vogue

''Captivating... Mesmerising'' New York Times

**Shortlisted for the Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize **