(Top) The portrait of VS Naipaul by Paul Emsley; The photo of the author posing for the portrait

London, Feb. 13: The National Portrait Gallery in London is very selective in commissioning images of living people but it has just unveiled a 960mm x 1119mm oil on canvas of V.S. Naipaul, winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize for literature.

Paul Emsley, the artist entrusted with executing this delicate commission, sat Naipaul down on his folding walking stick in the garden of the author’s home in Wiltshire and allowed “light and dark to come across his face as a metaphor for life and death”.

“I love it,” Naipaul told Emsley’s wife, Susanne, when she made so bold as to ask for his opinion at the lunch which followed the formal opening.

Naipaul summed up his reaction: “I have always needed time to think and this captures that very nicely. I am very honoured to have been singled out to be painted for the gallery.”

Naipaul, who came to Oxford from Trinidad in the early 1950s, said of his life to date: “It has been a long and at times very difficult journey to succeed as a writer in this country, but it is the only journey I felt I could make and I am glad to keep on looking and learning and writing.”

Painting Naipaul was Emsley’s prize for coming first in the 2007 BP Portrait Award but some feared the artist was being handed a poisoned chalice. This is because Naipaul does have a reputation for being irascible and even cantankerous if he feels his visitor is not sufficiently informed about his books.

Emsley’s approach is different. He was born in Scotland in 1947 but was taken to South Africa at the age of one by his parents. He returned to the UK 13 years ago and lives in Wiltshire, an hour away from Naipaul. “My wife came with me,” said Emsley. “She and Nadira (Naipaul’s wife) hit it off extremely well.”

Since Naipaul is far too frail now to manage long sittings, Emsley visited his subject twice and took photographs of the author using flash to light his face from the side.

Naipaul asked to be painted with his beloved garden as the backdrop, which is when Emsley had the inspiration of getting his subject to sit on his folding walking stick.

“They are very English, also a symbol of physical frailty,” the artist pointed out. “The thin legs of the stool and his slightly unsteady attitude seemed to reflect his frailty, especially with his left hand falling away between his legs and into shadow.”

The author apparently could not have been more co-operative. “He was really the perfect gentleman — no trouble at all,” remarked Emsley. “I found Sir Vidia extremely charming.”

The artist recalled: “He was keen to have the hedges behind him with the distant trees seen through the gap between them. At that point the sun came out, which made for a dramatic light. I photographed him full-figure seated on the stool and also took close-up details of the face, hands, clothes and shoes.”

The artist explained to The Telegraph that he tried to imbue his subjects with a sense of mystery: “Naipaul’s eyes are half closed as though he is saying, ‘the world is as it is’. ”

Emsley’s two photographic sessions with Naipaul were an hour each. Nelson Mandela, whom he is painting next, is in such demand that the former South African President’s staff could give the artist barely 10 minutes.

“In my work, the figure, animal or still-life disappears into darkness,” said Emsley. “This gives a sense of mystery and poignancy, echoing the transient nature of all our lives. Every face carries within it the DNA of every single ancestor of that human being.”

Sandy Nairne, director of the National Portrait Gallery, who welcomed Naipaul to the unveiling, said: “We make very few commissions of portraits of contemporary people and it is essential that they have made a significant contribution to our country. Sir Vidia changed the way we see the world through his writing.”