Oil paint on canvas
Tate Britain
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<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/philip-wilson-steer-1990" aria-label="More by Philip Wilson Steer" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Philip Wilson Steer</a>
Mrs Cyprian Williams and her Two Little Girls
Purchased with assistance from anonymous subscribers 1928
actions: postures and motions
adults
artist - non-specific
arts and entertainment
book - non-specific
chair
children
chrysanthemum
daughter
doll
domestic
family
furnishings
girl
groups
individuals: female
interiors
leisure and pastimes
living room
mother
named individuals
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people
plants and flowers
portraits
reading
reading, writing, printed matter
recreational activities
sitting
society
toys and models
Williams, Cyprian, Mrs
woman
work and occupations
<p>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.</p><p><em>Gallery label, May 2007</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
11 October 2002 – 5 January 2003
2003-01-05
11 October 2002 – 5 January 2003
2003-01-05
2002-10-11
Frist Center for the Visual Arts (Nashville, USA)
2002-10-11
Whistler Sargent and Steer - Frist
Tate partnerships & programmes
6 October 2005 – 14 May 2006
2006-05-14
6 October 2005 – 15 January 2006
2006-01-15
2005-10-06
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
18 February 2006 – 14 May 2006
2006-05-14
2006-02-18
Phillips Collection (Washington, USA)
2005-10-06
Degas, Sickert and Toulouse-Lautrec: London and Paris 1870-1910
Exhibition
16 December 2006 – 18 November 2007
2007-11-18
16 December 2006 – 18 November 2007
2007-11-18
2006-12-16
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2006-12-16
Intimate Interiors
Collection based display
7 August 2014 – 24 July 2022
2022-07-24
7 August 2014
2014-08-07
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2014-08-07
Gallery 9
Collection based display
31 October 2022
8 February 2021
2021-02-08
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2022-10-31
Gallery 5A
Collection based display
Mrs Cyprian Williams and her Two Little Girls
support: 762 × 1022 mm

Purchased with assistance from anonymous subscribers 1928
<p>Mrs Williams was an artist, who exhibited with Steer at the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/n/new-english-art-club" title="Glossary definition for 'New English Art Club'"><span>New English Art Club</span></a>, and her husband, T. Cyprian Williams, was a collector of art.  D.S. MacColl recalled that the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/portrait" title="Glossary definition for 'Portrait'"><span>portrait</span></a> was commissioned by another artist friend of Steer’s, Francis James (1849-1920). James owned the picture throughout his life, and it may be that it was painted at Steer’s request, but that he needed the commission in order to be able to devote the time to it.  The design of the portrait is unconventional in that the point of view looks downwards from one corner.  Mrs Williams is seen in profile, and her two daughters, placed on a bench that divides the picture diagonally, are seen from above.  It is likely that Steer felt freer to be so unusual since the portrait was not commissioned by the sitter.
<br/>
<br/>MacColl noted that Steer was imitating the complex design of <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>paintings</span></a> by Degas, and of Japanese <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/print" title="Glossary definition for 'Print'"><span>prints</span></a> – ‘A curiosity in <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/perspective" title="Glossary definition for 'Perspective'"><span>perspective</span></a> grouping, traceable to Degas or Japanese design, marks the <i>Mrs. Cyprian Williams with her Children</i>’ (p. 101).   The portrait was exhibited at the New English Art Club in 1891, where Steer was also competing with Sargent (1856-1925), who also favoured unusual <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>compositions</span></a>, and often emphasised, as does Steer, the sitter’s hands.  The connection with Japanese prints is made explicit by the additional tokens of the two Japanese dolls, and the Japanese fabric on the back of the armchair.
<br/>
<br/>This is one of the largest of Steer’s portraits. Its exhibition at the NEAC served to advertise his availability as an original portraitist, but did not lead to further commissions.
<br/>
<br/><b>Further reading:</b>
<br/>D.S. MacColl, <i>Life Work and Setting of Philip Wilson Steer</i>, 1945, pp. 44, 46, 101, 106, 192
<br/>Bruce Laughton<i>, Philip Wilson Steer 1860-1942</i>, 1971, pp. 42, 44-5, 131 (cat. 78), reproduced pl. 92
<br/>Jane Munro, <i>Philip Wilson Steer 1860-1942</i>, exhibition catalogue, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge and Arts Council of Great Britain, 1986, no.14, pp. 37-8, reproduced in colour p.10
<br/>Ysanne Holt, <i>Philip Wilson Steer, </i>Bridgend, Mid Glamorgan 1992, pp.54-5  
<br/>
<br/>David Jenkins
<br/>April 2001
<br/></p>

Summary
2005-09-15T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<p>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.</p>

Display caption
2007-05-03T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>N04422</b> MRS CYPRIAN WILLIAMS AND HER TWO LITTLE GIRLS 1891</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Inscr. ‘P. W. Steer’ b.r.
<br/>Canvas, 30×40 1/4 (76×102).
<br/>Purchased from Barbizon House (Clarke Fund) with the aid of a contribution from David Croal Thompson 1928.
<br/><i>Coll:</i> Francis Edward James until 1920.
<br/><i>Exh:</i> N.E.A.C., April 1891 (33); Barbizon House, February 1928 (5); Tate Gallery, April–July 1929 (4); National Gallery, June–August 1943 (10).
<br/><i>Lit:</i> MacColl in <i>Artwork</i>, No.17, 1929, pp.10, 15, repr. p.3; MacColl, 1945, pp.44, 46, 101, 106, 192.
<br/><i>Repr:</i> <i>Barbizon House Record</i>, 1929, No.28; Ironside, 1943, pl.18.</p>
<p>Commissioned in 1890 by Francis Edward James (1849–1920) the painter, who exhibited at the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/n/new-english-art-club" title="Glossary definition for 'New English Art Club'"><span>New English Art Club</span></a> and Royal <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/w/watercolour" title="Glossary definition for 'Watercolour'"><span>Watercolour</span></a> Society, of which he was an Associate. The chief sitter was the wife of a well-known collector, T. Cyprian Williams, and appears to have been herself an amateur artist since she exhibited as a non-member at the N.E.A.C. from April 1891 to November 1892. At the April 1891 exhibition she showed a <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> ‘Gwen and Joan’ which may just possibly have been a <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/portrait" title="Glossary definition for 'Portrait'"><span>portrait</span></a> of her two daughters.</p>
<p>Two studies of Mrs Cyprian Williams are listed in MacColl's catalogue (1945, p.192); one, ‘Sketch of Mrs Cyprian Williams’ (<a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/panel" title="Glossary definition for 'Panel'"><span>panel</span></a>, 9×11 in.), was apparently done while Steer was staying at Hayling Island in 1891, and was sold at Sotheby's in 1940 by the executors of Mrs H. R. Williams. A second ‘full-length study’ of Mrs Williams was also in this sale.</p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, <i>The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture</i>, London 1964, II
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-06T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: postures and motions adults artist - non-specific arts and entertainment book - non-specific chair children chrysanthemum daughter doll domestic family furnishings girl groups individuals: female interiors leisure and pastimes living room mother named individuals objects people plants and flowers portraits reading reading, writing, printed matter recreational activities sitting society toys and models Williams, Cyprian, Mrs woman work and occupations