Cherie visits art gallery to visualise herself in nude

Cherie Blair, wife of former British prime minister Tony Blair, paid a private visit to an
art gallery this week to visualise what she looked like in nude more than 30 years ago, media reported on Thursday.

There, hanging on the wall, is an artist's sketch of her naked form on fading brown paper, and a painting based on the sketch. The painting, Striding Nude, Blue dress, by Euan Uglow was scheduled to go on public display in 2006 but was withdrawn at the last minute. It is now on display and listed for sale at a Mayfair art gallery in London, with a price tag of 600,000 pounds.

The sketch, which is also on show at the Browse & Darby gallery, has already been sold for 4,000 pounds. The Blairs are speculated to have bought the sketch, but the gallery is keeping mum.

"It's the policy of the gallery that we keep our buyers' names secret. A lot of them don't want their names to be  revealed," the gallery owner, Charles Bradstock, said.

"There has been a very good reaction to both  works," he told The Independent. "We had a packed private viewing. Cherie Blair came before the private viewing to see them. She was interested, because she had never seen them before.

They brought back memories. Her husband wasn't with her."  Uglow, who died in 2000 aged 68, was noted for his slow, methodical way of working, which involved taking  dozens of measurements of his subjects.

He specified that the drawing and painting should  not go on public show while Tony Blair was prime minister.