Published on: 04/08/2026
A full-scale fine art print of A Last Supper by Sheffield-born artist Lorna May Wadsworth has found a home at St Mary’s Church, Ecclesfield, where the artist spent much of her childhood.
The work has been installed above the restored pre-Reformation altar in the church’s new Prayer Chapel, which will be consecrated by The Right Reverend Leah Vasey-Saunders, Bishop of Doncaster, on Sunday 16 August.
Originally painted in 2009, Wadsworth’s contemporary reimagining of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper was painted entirely from life, with Christ portrayed by Jamaican-born model Tafari Hinds. The original painting now hangs in St George’s Church, Nailsworth, Gloucestershire. It formed the centrepiece of Wadsworth GAZE retrospective exhibition at Graves Gallery in 2019-2020, which received over 16,000 visitors.
The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has described the painting:
“Like the great Leonardo painting that inspired it, this image of the Last Supper holds together the tense, arguing, confused group of Jesus’ friends with the stillness and openness of the central figure, carrying the cost of the division and confusion, and still extending a welcome. In our present British context, we are being challenged to see that divine welcome as bound up with our readiness to see God’s invitation in the faces of those who have been historically forgotten or dehumanized. It is a beautiful, powerful, timely image.”
In 2020, a two-thirds scale print was installed in St Albans Cathedral, attracting international media attention and prompting enquiries from churches and Christian organisations. Following the response, Wadsworth arranged for ultra-high resolution, museum-quality prints to be made available for churches and Christian organisations at the cost of production.
The installation at St Mary’s has a particular significance for the artist. Her family moved into the Old Vicarage beside the church after it ceased to be the clergy residence. A detailed pencil study of the church’s choir door, completed in 1993 when Wadsworth was thirteen, remains one of the first drawings she remembers being truly proud of.
More than thirty years later, one of her own works now hangs inside the same church. The choir door remains the entrance through which her mother passes to play the organ.
Wadsworth said:
“When I offered A Last Supper to churches at the cost of production, I never imagined that one day it would be installed at St Mary’s. I hoped the painting might continue to have a life beyond its original home, but of all the places it could have travelled, I could never have expected it would return to the church that has been part of my life since childhood. Some journeys are simply beyond anything you could have planned.”
To coincide with the installation, postcards of A Last Supper will be available to purchase, with all proceeds supporting St Mary’s appeal to raise £100,000 for the restoration of its historic organ.
The service begins at 10.00am on Sunday 16 August at St Mary’s Ecclesfield.
Refreshments will be served afterwards and all are welcome.
Notes to Editors
- A Last Supper was painted in 2009 and is permanently housed in St George’s Church, Nailsworth, Gloucestershire.
- The original full-size charcoal cartoon for the painting has been displayed in the Chapel of the Holy Spirit at Sheffield Cathedral since 2019, following Wadsworth’s retrospective exhibition, GAZE.
- A two-thirds scale print was installed in St Albans Cathedral in 2020, attracting worldwide media attention.
- Following the response, museum-quality prints were made available to churches and Christian organisations at the cost of production.
- The full-scale print has been installed at St Mary’s Church, Ecclesfield, above the restored pre-Reformation altar in the new Prayer Chapel.
- Postcards of A Last Supper will be on sale in aid of St Mary’s £100,000 organ restoration appeal.
- A biro drawing by Wadsworth of St Mary’s choir door, completed in 1993 when she was thirteen years old, is available on request.
Born in Sheffield, Lorna May Wadsworth is a British portrait painter based in East London. She came to prominence before graduating from university, with early commissions including portraits of the Rt Hon David Blunkett and the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams. Her best-known work is her monumental portrait of the late Baroness Margaret Thatcher, completed from five life sittings in 2007.