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This article is more than 1 year old

A portrait of an English literature student posing in a fake fur coat has won one of the UK’s most prestigious art prizes, which has been overshadowed by criticism of the oil company BP’s sponsorship of the award.

The Brighton-based artist Charlie Schaffer was announced as the winner of the 2019 BP portrait award, with the judges saying the composition had a strong sense of a living presence and managed to be traditional and contemporary at the same time.

Imara in her Winter Coat was created over a four-month period, with Schaffer taking inspiration from Titian’s Portrait of Girolamo Fracastoro. The sitter is an English literature student he met after moving permanently to Brighton from London, who wore her fake fur coat because of the cold conditions in Schaffer’s studio.

The judging panel said Schaffer’s portrait was a skilful “combination of several different textures including faux fur, hair and skin are revealed by prolonged looking and together these produce an image that is traditional, but clearly contemporary”.

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Born in 1992 and originally from London, Schaffer studied at Central Saint Martins before graduating with a degree in fine art from the University of Brighton in 2014. This year was his first entry into the competition.

Sandi Toksvig presented Charlie Schaffer with the £35,000 prize and a commission worth £7,000, which is to be chosen by the National Portrait Gallery trustees. Schaffer’s winning portrait competed with 2,537 other submissions from 84 countries.

This year’s announcement follows criticism of the National Portrait Gallery by groups taking issue with its acceptance of funding and sponsorship from BP.

Eight artists who have all been involved in the BP prize previously, including Paul Benney, Henry Christian-Slane, Raoul Martinez and Darvish Fakhr, gave their support to the groups, which claim the sponsorship helps to launder the oil industry’s image, and that companies such as BP are making the climate emergency worse.

“As the impacts of climate change become increasingly apparent, the gallery will look more and more out of step by hosting an oil-branded art prize,” the judge and artist Gary Hume wrote in a letter to the gallery’s director, Nicholas Cullinan. “Continuing to promote BP as the climate crisis intensifies will do unacceptable damage to the NPG’s reputation, relationships and public trust. I urge you to commit now to finding an alternative.”

More protests are due to take place with activists from Extinction Rebellion planning to disrupt the Royal Opera House’s BP Big Screens event in Trafalgar Square on Tuesday.

Second prize went to the Norwegian painter Carl-Martin Sandvold for The Crown, his “self-portrait in existential thought”; while third went to the Italian artist Massimiliano Pironti. The BP young artist award went to another Brighton-based artist, Emma Hopkins.

This year’s winners will be on show at the National Portrait Gallery from 13 June to 20 October before touring to venues including the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh (7 December until 22 March) and Ulster Museum in Belfast (April to June 2020).