Dawn French reveals she has giant painting of herself naked hanging on her bedroom wall but admits 'I do feel a bit embarrassed if someone has to come round'
It's not quite what you expect from a vicar – even a fictional one.
But Dawn French has revealed that she has a giant painting of herself naked and boasting 'magnificent', larger-than-life breasts hanging on her bedroom wall.
The Vicar of Dibley star admitted she posed for the portrait, but was shocked at the result – as she was fully clothed during the sitting.
It was only when artist Peter Howson returned a week later with the finished painting that she realised what he had done.
'I was in a lovely dress, laid on the chaise lounge,' she recalled. 'But he had painted me entirely in blue with the most magnificent t**s. It's the most wonderful painting.'
Howson offered Dawn the 12ft by 10ft artwork but his agents insisted the comedian pay for it, although she did not reveal how much.
Dawn French has revealed that she has a giant painting of herself naked and boasting 'magnificent', larger-than-life breasts hanging on her bedroom wal
The nude painting that Dawn French has on her wall
His paintings can fetch as much as £30,000, but are more often in the four-figure range.
Dawn, 66, said: 'I did not want that painting to go to someone else. I've got it in my bedroom, but I do feel a bit embarrassed if someone has to come round.
'I always feel like saying 'I actually had a dress on – those are not my actual t**s, although I'd be very pleased if they were'.'
Howson, who was the official war artist in the Bosnia conflict, painted the star when she interviewed him for a South Bank Show about fat women in culture. In the show, they discussed the work of artists such as 17th century Flemish painter Rubens, known for his depiction of voluptuous women.
But Dawn said Howson was a 'bit shy' about speaking on camera and recalled that he asked: 'I can talk, but I need to be doing something if I'm going to be talking, I can't just be looking at camera.
'So could you just lie on a chaise lounge... I will just start to paint you while I am talking.'
Dawn added: 'I asked him questions, he answered them, all about big women in art. Meanwhile he's daubing, daubing away.'
Artist Peter Howson who painted the piece for Dawn French
After their interview, Howson showed her what he had painted, a faithful representation of her in the dress.
But then he took it back to his studio in Glasgow, to return to London several days later with the finished article.
'So they take the cover off the painting and there's me naked, Dawn recalled.
'But this is exactly what he was explaining [in the documentary] that with people like Rubens, the women were not naked when they painted them, very often. They imagined the flesh.'
On the programme, which aired 30 years ago, Dawn asked Howson, a former drink and drug addict turned born-again Christian, if he wished she had sat for him naked.
He replied: 'It didn't really matter. It's a bit like when Goya did his Naked Maja, he used his imagination. I had to go through that process.'
'It's really plumptuous,' a delighted Dawn told him. 'If only I had t**s like that!
'Just as well it was from your imagination – who do you know?'
