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PROPERTY OF THE LATE MRS MINNIE WINGATE

PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST'S MOTHER ASLEEP

PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST'S MOTHER ASLEEP

69.5 by 51cm.; 27¼ by 20 in.

signed

oil on canvas

EXHIBITED

Southampton, Southampton Art Gallery, Camden Town Group Exhibition, 1951, no. 34;
London, Reid Gallery, Paintings and Drawings by Harold Gilman 1876-1919, 3rd April - 25th April 1964, no. 21.

NOTE

The present work appears to belong to a group of paintings of the artist's mother painted between 1917 and 1919, and of these is perhaps most closely related to an oil of almost identical size and format previously in the collection of the artist's family and a squared drawing in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. There is also a profile image of the sitter in the same chair in the collection of Manchester City Art Galleries.

This sensitive image perfectly highlights the ways in which the handling and palette of Gilman's painting had developed, using strongly contrasting colours and building the paint into richly textured layers. The rich and intricate detail of the viridian throw laid over the wide basketwork chair in which the sitter dozes contrasts deeply with the serenity of the sleeping woman, and by his working of the face into planes that catch the raking shadows of the light source he highlights the grey hair and translucent skin of this elderly lady. Gilman's ability to capture not only the likeness of an older sitter but also something of their mood is perhaps best see in the group of works which take the artist's landlady at 47 Maple Street, Mrs Mounter, as their subject.