Famed Swedish artist Johan Andersson has painted a topless portrait of actress Angelina Jolie. The oil painting features a bare-chested Jolie after her elective double mastectomy surgery.
The portrait is expected to sell for between $20-$30K with profits from the sale of the painting going to a charity called Falling Whistles that campaigns for peace in the Congo.
Andersson, 27, is the youngest artist to be exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery, and is known for his posthumous portrait of Amy Winehouse back in 2011. When asked by media why he chose to do the painting his response was compelling. “My mother had aggressive breast cancer when I was 15,” Andersson said. “The recent news about Angelina stirred an anxiety within me leading me to paint this portrait.”
The 37-year-old Jolie elected to undergo surgery after learning she carried the breast cancer gene. The surgery lowered her risk of getting breast cancer from 87 percent to under 5 percent.
Click here to see the portrait that will be auctioned for charity.
