Her pal, a strange artist (7)
I believe the answer is:
raphael
'artist' is the definition.
(Italian painter, 1483-1520)
'her pal a strange' is the wordplay.
'strange' indicates anagramming the letters.
'her'+'pal'+'a'='herpala'
'herpala' is an anagram of 'RAPHAEL'.
(Other definitions for raphael that I've seen before include "Fifteenth to sixteenth century Italian painter" , "Italian artist" , "Archangel - artist" , "Master" , "Painter of the Sistine Madonna" .)