Rose Wylie: The Picture Comes First

Royal Academy of Arts, 2026, hardcover, 160 pages, 25 x 25 cm

• Published to accompany an exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts (28 February to 19 April 2026)
• Reproductions of the artist’s most distinctive images
• Insightful new texts by leading authorities on Wylie’s work: Katharine Stout, Jennifer Higgie and Frances Morris

Rose Wylie OBE RA (b. 1934) lives and works in Kent. She paints from memory, frequently taking her imagery from mass media. Her large works on unstretched, unprimed canvas appear simple at first glance, but close inspection reveals them to be subtle meditations on the nature of visual representation. She regularly brings together apparently disparate images, creating visual rhymes and resonances that coalesce into unified compositions.

This new book, the catalogue of a large-scale exhibition at the Royal Academy, brings together leading authorities on Wylie’s work and a host of her unmistakable imagery.