Nikoleta has an interesting heritage, born in Rome to a German mother and Serbian father, she is now based in Madrid. After being introduced to her about 15 years ago, I have followed Nikoleta’s progress keenly and watched her rise as a leading contemporary figurative painting.

Her richly worked, and imagined, ‘portraits' recover lost pasts and suggest possible futures. Each painting is an act of homage to a great figure: a poet, philosopher, activist, or literary hero or heroine: from the Victorian mathematician, Countess Ada Lovelace, to the New Zealand suffragette, Kate Sheppard, via Virginia Woolf and Emily Dickinson, Rupert Brooke to EM Foster. More »

The painting's subject Maria Spartali Stillman (1844–1927) was one of the most significant yet long-overlooked artists of the later Pre-Raphaelite circle. Born in London to a prominent Anglo-Greek family, she grew up in an environment rich with intellectual and artistic connections. Her father, Michael Spartali, was the Greek consul in London, and their home became a lively gathering place for leading artists, poets, and writers. This milieu provided Spartali with early exposure to the creative world and introduced her to figures such as Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who would later become a crucial influence on her work.

Spartali began formal training under Ford Madox Brown, with whom she maintained a lifelong friendship. Under his guidance she developed the meticulous technique, attention to detail, and poetic sensibility that came to define her mature style. She quickly emerged not only as a gifted painter but also as a striking presence in artistic circles. Frequently described as one of the Pre-Raphaelite “stunners,” she modelled for Rossetti and others while simultaneously forging her own identity as an artist—an unusual dual role for a woman of her time.