“This was about embracing the beauty inside of a person, to show that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It is her eyes and her gaze that control the image.” 

—Mario Testino on this work 

The indelible Kate Moss has collaborated with innumerable photographers throughout her legendary career. Yet, she remembers her sessions with Mario Testino (b.1954) with singular fondness: ‘I have grown up with him photographing me — we have grown up together in a sense. The trust between us means that we are free with each other, he does not trap me into a set way of being, we find the picture together.’ Here, Testino presents Moss in all her mesmerising essence as a true icon. This now iconic image was taken in 2001 for the cover of the monograph that accompanied his first ever museum retrospective Mario Testino: Portraits at London’s National Portrait Gallery (2022). The artist recalls this intimate shoot: ‘[Kate] didn’t have a mirror or anything in front of her, just a palette of makeup. I asked her to put her finger on the blue and touch her eye, then put her finger on the red and touch her mouth.’ As exemplified in this striking close-up portrait, Testino surprises the viewer with new perspectives on the most recognisable faces. 

Testino’s work has been exhibited internationally, including at the National Portrait Gallery, London; the Shanghai Art Museum; MALBA, Buenos Aires; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Alongside his 40-year practice as a photographer, Testino was awarded the Grand Cross Order of Merit in 2010, one of the highest honours in his native country of Peru, and the Order of the British Empire in 2013 in recognition of his remarkable career and charity work. 

This larger-than-life portrait of Kate Moss has been in the same private collection for 18 years and is appearing at auction for the first time.