Cherie Blair appears naked at art gallery

The public are to get the chance to see an art work that shows the young Cherie Blair (pictured) semi-naked. The drawing, which will be displayed this week at the Browse & Darby gallery in Mayfair, is the work of the celebrated Scottish painter Euan Uglow, who famously used Cherie as a model when she was a trainee barrister in the early 1980s.

The drawing has already been reserved, but the gallery refuses to divulge the prospective buyer’s identity. There is no doubt it is the former Prime Minister’s wife - her name appears beside the drawing, along with her telephone number (not the current one, of course) - and she is due to be guest of honour at the private view.

The gallery is also selling a second Uglow work of Cherie, Striding Nude, Blue Dress. This is the painting - asking price: £600,000 - that was expected to appear on the walls of a London gallery in 2006, but which was withdrawn in mysterious circumstances.

However, in this case the artist combined Cherie’s body with another woman’s head. "The problem was that Cherie was a struggling lawyer at the time and Uglow was a famously slow painter," says Charles Bradstock, owner of the Browse & Darby gallery. "She couldn't spare enough time for him to complete the painting, so he used another model."

The Scottish artist, who died in 2000 aged 68, enjoyed a close friendship with Cherie, to whom she was introduced by their mutual friend Derry Irvine, the future Lord Chancellor. The Blairs' 25-year-old son, Euan, is said to have been named after him.

That bond is the reason the painting did not come to light before. Adds Bradstock: "Uglow specified that the nude pictures were not to go on display while Tony Blair was Prime Minister." ·