A portrait of a topless Angelina Jolie after her double mastectomy operation is up for auction. Swedish artist Johan Andersson has unveiled a 32x34 cm oil painting of the Hollywood star just weeks after she revealed that she had undergone the preventative procedure.

The painting features the mother of six topless post-surgery. As with double mastectomy operations, her breasts are sizably reduced. She is also featured without her nipples in the painting, though she had said in her op-ed for The New York Times earlier this month that they opted to save her nipples.

As to why Andersson painted Jolie bare-chested, he said that the news that the actress underwent the potential life-saving operation had hit home.

"My mother had aggressive breast cancer when I was 15, the thought of her having to have a mastectomy really scared me and she was fortunate enough to have surgery without the mastectomy," the artist told in a statement to Art Belows.

"The recent news about Angelina stirred an anxiety within me leading me to paint this portrait. There is an underlying awkwardness in her demeanour in juxtaposition to the natural beauty of her face."

Andersson, born in 1986, became the youngest ever artist to be shortlisted for the BP Portrait in 2007, wherein he won third prize for his Tamara painting. He is also one of the youngest artists to be exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery. He is perhaps known to music fans as the artist who painted a portrait of the late Amy Winehouse, which was unveiled on the Northern Line at the Camden Town just two weeks after her death in 2011.

According to the Daily Mail, it is expected to reach £15,000 or AUD 23,500 after going on display in an art gallery in Los Angeles.

The proceeds of the sale will benefit the Falling Whistles charity, which campaigns for peace in the Congo, a cause which Jolie herself is passionate about.

"Angelina Jolie is the ultimate female icon in this age that we are living in where we worship humans as if they were gods. It is profoundly alarming to see Angelina portrayed as a human being confronted with the realities that people are faced with no matter what their status," said Ben Moore, director of Art Below, the gallery selling the portrait.

Jolie underwent the elective procedure after learning that she had 87% chance of getting breast cancer. The surgery reduced her odds to 5%. She also opted to have reconstructive surgery after the procedure.