Huzzah to Madame Blair's Nude Portrait

Cherie Blair Posed Nude for Painting in Her Mid-20s
11 Dec

Cherie Blair, the wife of Prime Minister Tony Blair, posed nude for a painting when she was a trainee lawyer in her mid-20s, The Times reported. Cherie Blair, who goes by the name Cherie Booth professionally, is now a leading human rights lawyer, but for more than a year posed for Euan Uglow as he painted "Striding Nude, Blue Dress."

Well good for her. Outstanding! Absolutely wonderful! What does it say about the maturity and confidence of a young woman--any person or any gender, actually--who willingly sheds their clothing for the artistic desires of another, to have recorded for posterity the essence of who they are? I never really even thought of this woman before, and before this morning could not have given you her first name, but now my opnion of her is much, much greater. I think she's great, and would love to shake her hand and tell her so.

The painting, for which she was paid five pounds (E7.4, $9.8) an hour, depicts a woman wearing a sleeveless dress open at the front. She was required to pose still for up to an hour at a time in Uglow's south London studios. Uglow later painted a second version of the painting with a different model.

Okay, it sounds both artistic and sexy. Fine by me. And she was paid a professional fee. Again, good for her.

Would I like to see it? Sure. I like to see any artwork that has nude women in it. I enjoy it, the form, the difference coupled with the sameness. That's what makes it all interesting. And, it's downright amazing, wondrous, and beautiful.

"He wasn't pleased with the painting because it wasn't finished," said Will Darby, Uglow's close friend and dealer for 25 years. "We exhibited it in 1983 alongside the finished one but after that he just didn't want to show it . . . He was friends with the Blairs and it was his wish that it would never be shown after they entered public life," Darby told The Times.

The painting was stored at the Browse and Darby gallery in London until Uglow's death in 2000, and is now being held by the Marlborough Fine Art Trust.

So how long is it until one of the UK tabloids gets a photo of the painting and prints it? I say it's within two weeks.

According to The Times, Blair's Downing Street office declined to comment on the issue.

And why would they comment on the issue? It has nothing whatsoever to do with Tony Blair's responsibilities as the PM or the running of the British government. I mean, honestly, who the hell cares? It's private, something between the artist, who apparently is an honorable man, and the subject. Sure, I guess there are some rabid British conservos who will consider that since she has demonstrated she's confident in her body and who she is, that she is unfit to be the wife of a PM, and that somehow Blair is unfit to be a PM, now that there is some sort of physical evidence that his wife was once--and hopefully for Tony still is--a vibrant, confident and sexual woman.

It's a shame we can't say the same about any of our recent First Ladies, or even conceptualize it. Laura Bush? Puh-leeze, what with those creepy eyes and that rote, uninspired, patronizingly smiling, unflinching idiotic conservatism. Hilary? Maybe, at one time, early on when she was wife to (lying shithead) Bill, but since then the image of a rampaging political animal has supplanted that. Barbara Bush? No way, unless you're into GILFs. Farther back, to Nancy Reagan? Gawd no, as scrubbed, antiseptic skeletal images in ridiculous couture put me off my lunch. Rosalyn Carter--no. Betty Ford--glub, glub--no. Pat Nixon--no. Hell, you've got to go all the way back to Kennedy and Jackie O--over 40 years ago--to find any kind of recent First Lady who came the slightest bit close to something I'd interpret as sexy. It's a shame, and sadly indicative of where this country--and apparently England, too--is when it comes to female public figures.