A portrait of Margaret Thatcher by the Scottish artist Anne Mackintosh has sold for £42,000 at auction.
The oil canvas from the late Prime Minister’s personal collection was her favourite painting of herself and was hung above the fireplace in the living room of her home.
Glasgow-based Ms Mackintosh was asked by Tory fundraiser Sir Jack Harvie to paint Baroness Thatcher so that the portrait could be presented to her when she visited Scotland.
The Tory politician, who died aged 87 in 2013, sat for the artist and the painting depicts her during her final days in Downing Street wearing a bottle green Aquascutum suit.
The painting had been given an estimate of £10,000 to £15,000 but fetched a final price of £42,000 following a bidding war at Sloane Street Auctions in London.
Recalling the commission, Ms Mackintosh, who died aged 79 in 2014, said: ‘I knew I would only get two sittings, so I took a video camera and filmed her talking to me, then worked from that at home. Then I took the painting to work on it at the second sitting.
The painting was reputedly Lady Thatcher’s favourite portrait of herself and was painted by Anne Mackintosh
‘She was a perfect subject. She hardly moved. She’s got such will power. She looked at the painting at the end and told me she liked it.’
The artist later received a letter of thanks from Baroness Thatcher who was famously photographed posing with the portrait of herself in 1995 in her London home.
Ms Mackintosh also went on to paint dignitaries such as Nelson Mandela and King Hussein of Jordan four times.
Another portrait of Baroness Thatcher by English artist Brenda Bury was sold at the same auction for £9,500.
