Never-before-seen paintings of model Cara Delevingne will feature in a new exhibition of British artist Jonathan Yeo’s work.

Already a favoured muse of designer Karl Lagerfeld, Delevingne has posed for Yeo six times in an ongoing series over the last 15 months to help create the 12 new portraits, eight or nine of which will appear alongside noted works from his 25- year career in a Danish retrospective.

The portrait of Cara (Jonathan Yeo)Portrait of Cara (Jonathan Yeo)

 

Jonathan said: “I’m honoured to be having such a major exhibition at Denmark’s prestigious National History Museum and also to have been collaborating with one of the most interesting cultural figures of her generation on several new works.

“Cara Delevingne and I have been working for over a year on a series of portraits themed around the challenge of depicting subjects who are increasingly adept at manipulating and changing their own image.”

He hailed Cara as “a brilliant chameleon” and the “perfect subject and muse” for his exploration of the construction of identity through social media and the sharing of selfies as a form of portraiture.

Artist Jonathan Yeo Artist Jonathan Yeo

 

The self-taught artist is world-renowned for his portraits of cultural, media and political figures, including Tony Blair, Idris Elba, Sienna Miller, Malala Yousafzai and Sir David Attenborough.

The exhibition, entitled Jonathan Yeo Portraits, will be the largest showing of his work and the first by a British artist at the Danish museum.

As well as his collaboration with Delevingne, Yeo will unveil a new portrait of House of Cards actor Kevin Spacey later this month at the Smithsonian Gallery in Washington DC.

Jonathan Yeo Portraits runs from March 20 to June 30 at The Museum of National History at Frederiksborg Castle, near Copenhagen.