A year’s retrospective following work from artist (4)
I believe the answer is:
goya
'artist' is the definition.
(Francisco Goya)
'a year's retrospective following work' is the wordplay.
'year' becomes 'y'.
'retrospective' shows that the letters should be reversed in order.
'following' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'work' becomes 'go' (synonyms).
'a'+'y'='ay'
'ay' written backwards gives 'ya'.
'ya' after 'go' is 'GOYA'.
'from' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for goya that I've seen before include "Francisco de ---- (1746-1828), Spanish painter of portraits" , "Artist, died at Bordeaux, 1828" , "Portrait painter" , "Old master" , "European painter" .)