Paula Rego is a Portuguese-born British painter of figure, animal and fantasy subjects. She studied at the Slade School, where she met her husband, the painter Victor Wiling. In the 1980's Rego became well known for her enigmatic figurative paintings, which often have a feeling of caricature as well as of fantasy. In 1990 she was appointed first associate artist of the National Gallery, London. She painted murals in the restaurant of the gallery's new Sainsbury Wing in 1991, and in 1992 she became the first living artist to be given an exhibition in the gallery.