Bill Leak talks with Magda Keaney about his portrait of Robert Hughes

• tell us about how you came to paint a portrait of Hughes so soon after his car accident
  
  
• So this was before the car accident?
  
  
• 'a black period of his life'
  
  
• 'He really is a tenacious bastard, and he's bloody tough'
  
  
• Larger than life
  
  
• What was Hughes response?
  
  
• Related works in the collection
  
  
• Back to the portrait

Robert Hughes -
Nothing if not critical 2001
by Bill Leak (b. 1956)
oil on canvas
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2002

Related works in the collection

Hughes by Louis Kahan, 1962	Hughes by Louis Kahan, late 1970's
Hughes by Rex Dupain, 1996	Mark Taylor by Bill Leak, 1999