Adam Birtwistle is a leading, internationally acclaimed, artist. He has lived in France for the past 25 years but exhibited regularly in London. His challenging portraits combine a wry humour with an unsettling ‘vale of violence’ that is readily exposed in most of us when our thin veneer of civilised behaviour is tested. Born in Eton in 1959, Birtwistle is best known for a body of portraits which are at once stark and playful, idiosyncratic and immediately recognisable. Six are on display at Glyndebourne Opera House, East Sussex, and two are owned by the National Portrait Gallery – one of his father, the composer Sir Harrison Birtwistle, and the other of Elvis Costello. In addition to the NPG’s paintings, notable works include: portraits of the painters Craigie Aitchison RA (1926–2009) and Sir Peter Blake RA, critic David Sylvester (1924–2001), pianist Alfred Brendel and composers Michael Tippett (1905–1998), Benjamin Britten (1913–1976), Morton Feldman (1926–1987), Hans Werner Henze (1926–2012) and Pierre Boulez. 'The Glutton' (2015) is part of a series on which Adam Birtwistle is currently working of 'The Seven Deadly Sins'. An over-fed Georgian dandy, the titular 'glutton', sits in an ornate chair, spilling out of his shirt and waistcoat. The objects of his temptation float across the painting - cheese, pies, cuts of meat and wine - as the glutton sucks on his fork. Inspired by Hogarth's series 'The Rake's Progress' which follows the downfall of an aristocratic young man who indulges in every vice and pleasure, Birtwistle's 'Glutton' is a repulsive yet wry and playful hedonist.