Euan Uglow

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In 1972, when Cherie Blair was 22, she posed for the artist Euan Uglow, who sketched her naked body (writing her name and phone number on the brown paper), and from this derived a painting titled Striding Nude, Blue Dress. While the sketch shows a nude, headless torso, the painting partially covers the body with an open dress and includes a head, which is not thought to be Blair’s. Uglow was apparently a slow, methodical painter, and Cherie Blair “couldn't spare enough time for him to complete the painting, so he used another model,” according to Charles Bradstock, owner of Browse & Darby gallery, where both the sketch and painting are on view.

Uglow, who died in 2000, stipulated that neither work should go on display while Tony Blair was prime minister. This is their first public showing.

The painting, which carries a price tag of £600,000 ($872,300), has not yet sold. The sketch, meanwhile, has gone for £4,000. Bradstock would not reveal the identity of the buyer, but some have speculated that it sold to a former prime minister, or perhaps his wife.