John Bratby's painting was driven by an extraordinary and, at times a near obsessional industry. In one ten-year period he persuaded some 1000 people to sit for portraits. On graduating from the Royal College of Art in 1954, he rose to instant fame with his unadulterated view of ordinary domestic life and he was soon regarded as the leading light of what came to be known as the "Kithen Sink Painters'. In 1956 he was chosen to represent Britain at the Venice Biennalle, his star quickly fell as fast as it had risen, as critics flocked to the new wave of abstract expressionism which took dramatically took hold of Britain.

Yet his confidence and his prodigious output seemed utterly undimmed by the lack of support - he was far too intelligent and talented a painter to be bothered. As one obituary described: "Bratby was a fat man of a painter, full of gusto and pigment-loaded brushes. His surname suited his honest vulgarity, a ripe raspberry blown in the face of lace-curtained decorum."

The last few years have seen a growing interest in the artist's work, most notably with the purchase of paintings for the Saatchi collection.