The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 8 plus 2 plus 1 plus 4 letter word PORTRAIT OF A LADY
I've seen this crossword clue in The Times
P
O
R
T
R
A
I
T
O
F
A
L
A
D
Y
More clues leading to the result PORTRAIT OF A LADY
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "work" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case work = portrait of a lady.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.