Before her death last July, Ms. Winehouse, a soul singer who struggled with drugs and alcohol, had had a relationship with Mr. Doherty, a fellow musician and troubled soul. During their time together they worked on a painting called “Ladylike,” for which Ms. Winehouse contributed a minimalist self-portrait and which uses an artistic technique Mr. Doherty calls “arterial splatter”: illustrations made with blood from a syringe or a sliced-open fingertip.
Moving on: Mr. Doherty showed “Ladylike” at a February exhibition called “On Blood: A Portrait of the Artist,” but it was not put on sale at that time. (“Amy was on the phone to her dad when she did that,” Mr. Doherty told The Independent of London. “She said, ‘Dad, I’m with Pete and he’s making me draw with my blood!’ He didn’t like me much, her dad.”)
More recently, “Ladylike” was put up for auction by a private seller, along with other personal items of Mr. Doherty’s. The painting was expected to sell for £50,000 to £80,000 (about $80,000 to $128,000) but fetched only £35,000 (about $56,000). The Guardian said a portion of the sale price would be donated to the Amy Winehouse Foundation.
