1890–1915

Harold Gilman, Madeleine Knox  c.1910–1

This portrait of artist Madeleine Knox gives little away about her profession or character. Instead, the quiet domestic setting, gentle colours and dappled brushwork create a meditative atmosphere. Knox’s thoughtful pose is enigmatic: she fingers her coat but it is unclear whether she has just returned from somewhere, or is about to leave. Gilman died in the post-war influenza epidemic at the age of 43.

Gallery label, October 2020

Edgar Degas, Woman at her Toilet  c.1894

In contrast to conventional treatments of this subject, Degas provides little detail in this scene of a woman at her toilette. Instead, he has focused on the formal aspects of the composition. The action of the woman combing her hair is anchored within the rectangle formed by the woman's arms and the table edge. The contrast of the soft form of the active central figure and the heavily outlined shape of the immobile maid generates a visual tension and energy, which is heightened by the rich treatment of the walls and furnishings.

Gallery label, August 2004

Sir William Orpen, The Mirror  1900

The sitter in this portrait is Emily Scoble, a model from the Slade School of Art. Orpen was briefly engaged to her. The room is apparently an accurate portrayal of Orpen’s lodgings, but the shallow pictorial depth and decorative, or ‘aesthetic,’ arrangement of objects is based on Whistler’s famous portrait of his mother in profile. The circular mirror on the wall reflects the artist painting at his easel. This is a device which Orpen borrowed from a 15th-century painting by Jan van Eyck, The Arnolfini Portrait, which he would have seen on display at the National Gallery.

Gallery label, July 2017

Gwen John, Self-Portrait  1902

Gwen John trained at the Slade School of Art in London from 1895–1898. As a woman in an industry still largely dominated by men, John had to struggle for recognition. It has been suggested that the intense self-scrutiny of this image and her isolation, reflects her experiences as an artist. In recent years, John’s reputation has grown, and she is widely recognised for her intimate portraits and her subtle use of colour.

Gallery label, February 2019

Walter Richard Sickert, Ennui  c.1914

The title of this painting means ‘boredom’ in French. Sickert suggests the strained relationship between the figures by their lack of communication. Despite being close together, the man and woman face in opposite directions, staring off into space. They appear almost trapped in their surroundings. The furnishings reinforce the theme, in particular the bell jar containing stuffed birds, suggesting a suffocating environment. Sickert’s works give us no moral or narrative certainty. He leaves it up to us to interpret the image.

Gallery label, August 2020

Harold Gilman, Mrs Mounter at the Breakfast Table  1916–17

Gilman was a member of the Camden Group of painters whose commitment to the painting of everyday life is typified in this work. Mrs Mounter was the artist’s landlady. He shows her with a blank, perhaps melancholy expression. She seems almost dominated by the very ordinary tea pot, jug and cups which speak, perhaps, of a simple life. Such simplicity in a painting would have seemed radical to audiences used to seeing more lavish subjects.

Gallery label, September 2016

Philip Wilson Steer, Mrs Cyprian Williams and her Two Little Girls  1891

The unusual perspective of this composition, looking down on the subject, was influenced by the work of French artist Edgar Degas and the design of Japanese prints. It is used to convey a sense of claustrophobia and confinement. The wife of an art collector, Helen Cyprian Williams was a successful amateur artist renowned for her distinctive features and volatile temperament. The uneasy shift in scale from Mrs Williams to her daughters – and her gaze away from them, lost in thought – reinforces some undefined sense of separation. Her stillness invites us to speculate about what is running through her mind.

Gallery label, May 2007

Nina Hamnett, The Landlady  1918

Ethel Sands, The Chintz Couch  c.1910–1

Edouard Vuillard, Girl in an Interior  c.1910

Vuillard was associated with a group of young artists known as the Nabis, whose anti-naturalist, decorative style was influenced by Gauguin. He frequently used friends as models, but he was not a portraitist in a traditional sense. ‘I don’t make portraits’, he once said, ‘I paint people in their homes’. He obsessively studied the everyday objects and furnishings of middle class interiors, and represented his models as they might be seen by a friend or member of their family. The model here is Mme Alfred Savoir, known as Miche, an acquaintance of Vuillard’s friend and dealer, Jos Hessel.

Gallery label, December 2011

Philip Wilson Steer, Seated Nude: The Black Hat  c.1900

Wilson Steer, one of the most impressionist of British painters, posed his nudes in everyday settings, and here the model is playfully trying on a hat she has found in the studio. Steer did not exhibit this sketch, and it was chosen for the Tate Gallery directly from his studio in 1941, by the then Director Sir John Rothenstein. Steer told him ‘friends told me it was spoiled by the hat; they thought it indecent that a nude should be wearing a hat, so it’s never been shown’.

Gallery label, February 2016

Walter Richard Sickert, Woman Washing her Hair  1906

Sickert was committed to painting everyday life, and here he shows the woman in circumstances in which she might naturally be naked. This sets her apart from the artistic tradition of female nudes, which were conventionally shown inactive and with little context.Sickert learnt much from the French artist Edgar Degas, including such ‘through the key hole’ views. In this way the woman is shown as if we have glimpsed her without her knowing we are there.This is one of a series of nudes Sickert painted in his studio in Paris in autumn 1906.

Gallery label, May 2007

Sylvia Pankhurst, In a Glasgow Cotton Spinning Mill: Changing the Bobbin  1907

In a Glasgow Cotton Spinning Mill: Changing the Bobbin 1907 is one of a group of gouaches in Tate’s collection from the series Women Workers of England by the artist and campaigner for women’s rights, Sylvia Pankhurst (Tate T15755–T15758). It depicts a female worker standing in front of one of the mechanical frames used to spin cotton fibres into yarn in a Glasgow cotton mill. She is dressed in simple working clothes, facing the mechanical frame, and has her arms raised to change a full bobbin on the top row of the frame. The same location and machinery are depicted in In a Glasgow Cotton Mill: Minding a Pair of Fine Frames (Tate T15756), though in that work the female worker sits in a rare moment of pause from what would normally have been a physically demanding job.

Sylvia Pankhurst, In a Glasgow Cotton Mill: Minding a Pair of Fine Frames  1907

In a Glasgow Cotton Mill: Minding a Pair of Fine Frames 1907 is one of a group of gouaches in Tate’s collection from the series Women Workers of England by the artist and campaigner for women’s rights, Sylvia Pankhurst (Tate T15755–T15758). It depicts a female worker supervising the operation of the mechanical frames used to spin cotton fibres into yarn in a Glasgow cotton mill. She is seated, dressed in simple working clothes. Turning away from her work for a moment, she faces the artist with her hands folded in her lap, gazing into space. Behind her are rows of complex machinery loaded with the bobbins which the spinning machine is filling with yarn and two baskets ready to receive the filled bobbins. This is a rare depiction of a female worker not actively engaged in manual work as she supervises the complex machines that had taken over from hand processes. The same location and machinery are depicted in In a Glasgow Cotton Spinning Mill: Changing the Bobbin 1907 (Tate T15755), though in that work the female worker stands, her arms raised, to change a full bobbin on the top row of the frame.

Spencer Gore, North London Girl  c.1911–12

The Camden Town Group held regular gatherings on Saturday afternoons at rooms Sickert had rented in Fitzroy Street. Here patrons were shown new works, given tea and invited to buy paintings. Gore's portrait is of the woman who served the tea on these occasions and kept the rooms tidy. Although perhaps best known for his landscapes, urban scenes and theatre pictures, Gore was a gifted and sensitive portraitist, although he never undertook formal commissions. Here he pays as much attention to the textures, patterns and colours of his sitter's clothes and her surroundings as he does to her face.

Gallery label, September 2004

Gwen John, Chloë Boughton-Leigh  1904–8

Gwen John trained at the Slade School of Art in London. She settled in Paris in 1904, working as a model and immersing herself in the artistic world of the city. She lived in France for the rest of her life, exhibiting on both sides of the Channel. The portrait shown here is of Chloë Boughton-Leigh, a close friend of the artist. It was likely painted in John’s attic room and studio in Paris. The subtle colour scheme, short foreground and her sitter’s informal pose suggest an intimate atmosphere.

Gallery label, January 2019