By the 1970s he had painted a series of portraits including of Billie Whitelaw. Bratby was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts in 1971. In the 1980s he travelled and made paintings of the cities he visited. He made intimately-posed portraits of his wife and self-portraits. He continued to paint with bright colours, but had developed "an economy of line". His paintings are shown in the 1984 television mini-series adaptation of Judith Krantz's novel "Mistral's Daughter", about an artist. Bratby's own work fell out of favour with the emergence of Pop art, but his paintings have increased in value and critical support over recent years. Paul McCartney has been a collector of his works. McCartney had given Bratby two hours in Bratby's studio in 1967. Three portraits resulted from the sitting. He wrote the novels "Breakdown" (1960), "Breakfast and Elevenses" (published by Hutchinson; 1961), and "Brake Pedal Down" (1962). He also wrote a book about Stanley Spencer in 1970. Bratby was married first to the painter Jean Cooke from 1953 to 1975. He died on 20 July 1992 in Hastings, Sussex, of a heart attack, leaving his widow, Patti Rosenburg.