Portrait of Katie Tomkins by Roxana Halls

Portrait of Katie Tomkins, Mortuary and Post-Mortem Services Manager, West Hertfordshire NHS Trust, July 2020, by Roxana Halls. Oil on linen, grey box frame. Tomkins appears three quarter length, facing left, with arm raised holding a protective visor over her head. Other hand resting on her hip. Both arms tattooed. She wears blue medical scrubs and a green plastic apron. Behind her a stainless steel sink.

Roxana Halls' portrait forms part of the initiative ‘Portraits for NHS Heroes’ begun by artist Tom Croft on Instagram in April 2020. Working in his studio, listening to the rolling news cycle of the global Covid-19 pandemic, Croft found himself unable to work, wanting to help. He decided that portraits would be one way to raise the status of NHS workers, say thank you, and immortalise their heroic work for future generations. From one offer to paint a free portrait, Croft went on to connect more than 500 artists with a wide range of NHS staff using the hashtag #PortraitsforNHSHeroes. The initiative received wide media coverage, an online exhibition with Google Arts and Culture, was featured on the large screens in London’s Piccadilly Circus, and resulted in a book published by Bloomsbury.

The portrait of Tomkins was requested by Natalie Miles-Kemp, Head of Strategy Delivery at West Herts Hospitals Trust in recognition of Tomkins’ outstanding leadership through the Covid-19 crisis and in celebration of her extraordinary courage. Halls produced the work for free. Tomkins has spoken movingly about what the portrait means for her and her profession of Anatomical Pathology Technology: ‘When I look at Roxana’s painting, I see someone who’s exhausted, slightly burned out, but determined to get the job done. That’s exactly how I felt.’ Mortuary and post-mortem services play a crucial role in hospital care, and were particularly challenged during the Covid-19 pandemic when staff were not able to welcome families.

The portrait connects to a number of important iconographies within art and medicine. Hall has discussed how ‘In combination with [Katie’s] contemporariness, her style suggested for me something of the Rosie the Riveter archetype and the wartime portraits of Dame Laura Knight. I hoped with my portrait to evoke something of the focus, resolve and heroism of Knight’s subjects, placing Katie within the sanitized realm of her highly-skilled and indescribably challenging work.’