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Sarah Natasha Raphael (10 August 1960 – 10 January 2001) was an English artist best known for her portraits and draughtsmanship.
Her family lived abroad for long periods of time. "As a little girl aged seven, she was dazzled by the beauty of the Greek island Ios, where she lived with her family. She started painting it then and there with her little box of paints, and she would return to the motif later in adult life."
Sarah was educated at Bedales School (Steep, Hampshire), and subsequently studied art at Camberwell School of Art, London, 1978 – 81, graduating with a First Class Honours Degree.
She was an accomplished, assured draftsman. A survey of her work is provided by the book, Sarah Raphael Drawings, published by Carcanet Press Ltd, October 2004. As William Boyd has written of her figurative works, "You can tell how good they are yourself: you don't need the imprimatur of a gallery or a dealer or a patron."
Initially notable for her portraits, Raphael's paintings became progressively more abstract, especially evident through the series: Desert Paintings (mid-90s), STRIP! (1997) and Time Travel for Beginners (2000).
Of particular note of her prints (etchings and monotypes) are the Small Objects works, which relate to the STRIP! paintings. She illustrated books written by her father, Frederic, The Hidden I: A Myth Revisited in 1990 and Of Gods and Men in 1992.
She has works hanging in the Metropolitan Museum in New York and in several large corporate collections as well as London's National Portrait Gallery. She was so much in demand that her paintings cost £50,000 in 1995.
She died from septicaemia following pneumonia, aged 40, on 10 January 2001.
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