Malala Yousafzai portrait by Jonathan Yeo is to go on display for the first time at the National Portrait Gallery in London.
The 16-year-old educational activist was attacked by gunmen in Pakistan in 2012, following her campaign for girls to have the right to attend school.
Jonathan Yeo said it was an “honor” to paint a portrait of “one of the most inspiring figures of our age”.
The portrait shows Malala Yousafzai doing her homework and is larger than life-size.
It will go on display alongside several previously un-exhibited Jonathan Yeo portraits of well-known figures, such as Damien Hirst and Kevin Spacey.
Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head on a school bus by Taliban gunmen on her way home from school in October 2012.
Malala Yousafzai portrait by Jonathan Yeo is to go on display for the first time at the National Portrait Gallery in London
She was flown to Birmingham for treatment and now lives in the city.
Jonathan Yeo first met Malala Yousafzai and her family in April, when she had just started school in the UK and was still recovering from her injuries.
He said it was “a great privilege to spend some time with Malala and her family at such a pivotal moment in her life”.
“Given how much she has already been through and all that she represents to the world, it took a while to adjust to the fact that she is still a very fragile teenager.
“Hopefully the painting reflects the slight paradox of representing someone with enormous power and wisdom yet vulnerability and youth at the same time,” he said.
The portrait will be auctioned later for Malala Yousafzai’s charity fund, which campaigns for girls’ rights to education.
Malala Yousafzai, who has recently been awarded the International Children’s Peace Prize, said she was “honored that the National Portrait Gallery should wish to hang my picture and touched that Jonathan asked to paint me. I think that he has really captured me in the image.”
“Jonathan has been extremely kind in donating the portrait to The Malala Fund and it is wonderful to know that many children will ultimately be able to benefit from the money raised from its sale,” Malala Yousafzai added.
Sienna Miller decided to take the plunge a la Demi Moore and show off her baby bump and the rest of her pregnant body in a portrait by acclaimed artist Jonathan Yeo.
In July, just weeks before the birth of her daughter Marlowe, the actress decided to sit for the British artist for a series of portraits which are due to be exhibited in (I’ve Got You) Under My Skin at the Circle Culture Gallery in Berlin.
Showing off her completely naked body, Sienna Miller, 30, is painted in gold and shows the star with her hands on her arched back, pushing out her prominent bump.
Just like stars including Demi, Jerry Hall and Kate Moss, Sienna Miller has chosen to show the world her pregnant body in all its glory.
Sienna Miller decided to take the plunge a la Demi Moore and show off her baby bump and the rest of her pregnant body in a portrait by acclaimed artist Jonathan Yeo
Sienna Miller met the high profile contemporary artist, who’s painted the likes of Tony Blair, Nicole Kidman and Prince Phillip, eight years ago in Los Angeles.
The pair struck up a friendship and since then the star has posed for a series of portraits for him.
Jonathan Yeo’s striking portrait, which is shown alongside paintings of plastic surgery, was created to confront society’s reactions to the naked female form.
“I wanted an image that epitomized the human body in its most naturally beautiful state to make the sharpest possible contrast with my other paintings in this exhibition, which document patients undergoing cosmetic surgery in a bid to help them conform to societal notions of beauty,” Jonathan Yeo writes in the exhibition catalogue.
“It has been 22 years since a pregnant Demi Moore caused uproar by posing for Annie Leibovitz on the cover of Vanity Fair. In that time society has become almost completely desensitized to the daily exposure to people who have surgically distorted their appearance for artificial reasons,” he continues.
“Yet certain sections of society are still uncomfortable with the appearance of pregnancy.”
The artist admits that Sienna Miller was the obvious choice to showcase what natural beauty really is:
“The power of the painting partly lies in the fact that Sienna is widely regarded as being one of the most naturally beautiful actresses in the world as well as being a fashion icon to a generation of girls. It is a tribute to her courage and self-confidence that she agreed to sit for this,” he adds in the catalogue.
