Paula Rego was born in Lisbon in 1935, three years into the dictatorship of António de Oliveira Salazar, her father was an electrical engineer and her mother had studied painting. She went to St Julian's School in Carcavelos and it was here that she began to develop an interest in art, creating murals and decorating the school hall.
She went on to study art at the Slade School in London and it was during this time she met the artist Victor Willing at a party. They fell in love and, at the age of 20, Paula got pregnant. As Victor was married she went back to her parents in Portugal to have the baby. Victor eventually left his wife and joined Paula in Portugal and they got married in 1959.
Rego became part of the London Group in 1965, exhibiting with fellow artists including David Hockney and R. B. Kitaj. She was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 1989 and became the first Associate Artist of the National Gallery in London in 1990. She produced a mural in the Sainsbury Wing of the gallery in 1991 and was awarded the Degree of Doctor of Letters honoris causa by Oxford University in June 2005
