Lily Allen's West End Girl portrait goes on show at National Portrait Gallery

The portrait of Lily Allen from the cover of her recent hit album West End Girl has gone on display at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

The painting, by Spanish artist Nieves Gonzalez and owned by Allen, was unveiled on Thursday and will be on show for the next year.

It shows the singer sitting on a stool wearing a polka dot puffer jacket and boots revealing a tattoo on her left leg.

Allen, who also begins her three-night run of gigs at the London Palladium theatre on Friday, said: "I'm so pleased to make this special painting available for everyone to see."

She added: "Nieves captured the feel of the album so brilliantly and I knew immediately it would make a very strong album cover.

"It seems to me the portrait reflects so many facets of the album - strength, power, vulnerability, determination and confusion, amongst many others - that it acts as a key to the whole listening experience. I love it."

The singer's Brit Award-nominated fifth studio album - her first in seven years - peaked at number two in the UK chart last year and melodically dissected her break-up with her ex-husband, US actor David Harbour, in great detail.

She has described it as a mix of "truth" and "fantasy".

Artist Gonzalez, whose work is inspired by classical Baroque artists like Velázquez and Goya, said she felt "enormously fortunate" to have been part of the album's journey.

"I wanted it to be an intimate and direct image, but also powerful," she said. "To show her strength, her wisdom, through the eyes of the contemporary women that we are."

National Portrait Gallery director Victoria Siddall said its collection "celebrates the people who have shaped our history and culture, and Lily Allen is undoubtedly one of the defining voices of her generation".

The gallery's collection includes likenesses of famous figures from William Shakespeare to Queen Elizabeth II, and from Charles Darwin to Adele.