As a student at the Glasgow School of Art, Alison Watt rose to prominence in 1987 after winning a commission to paint HM Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother.
Together with her compatriot Jenny Saville, Watt led the way in British figurative painting in the 1990s with a focussed, precise and intensely observed style which defied the tenets of the Young British Artists movement.
During the 1990s, the focus of Watt’s painting was highly realistic posed female forms. Working intensely with both life models and her own body, she focussed on producing composite images which led to subtle distortions of form.