Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Contemporary Art Society
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/sir-lawrence-gowing-1197" aria-label="More by Sir Lawrence Gowing" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Sir Lawrence Gowing</a>
Mrs Roberts
Presented by the Contemporary Art Society 1945
adults
body
cleaning
domestic
head / face
individuals: female
named individuals
people
portraits
Roberts, Ellen
woman
work and occupations
<p>A student at the Euston Road School, Lawrence Gowing attended throughout its existence. This later portrait of Mrs Ellen Roberts, the Gowings' cleaning lady, was painted at their home in Paultons Square, Chelsea. In 1945 the Daily Sketch reported the sitter's comments: 'It's me, isn't it? Perhaps in another hundred years I will be hanging in a national museum'. In 1983 Sir Lawrence described Mrs Roberts as 'gaunt and gracious'. He also recalled how, when studying the work of Masaccio at that time, he 'realised that not only the transverse lighting but the unidealised sympathy and the visual authenticity that I prized in painting were all his invention'.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2004</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
16 October 2003 – 31 May 2004
2004-05-31
16 October 2003 – 4 January 2004
2004-01-04
2003-10-16
National Portrait Gallery (London, UK)
http://www.npg.org.uk
13 February 2004 – 31 May 2004
2004-05-31
2004-02-13
Scottish National Portrait Gallery (Edinburgh, UK)
2003-10-16
Below Stairs
Loan-out
3 February 2006 – 23 April 2006
2006-04-23
Tate Liverpool (Liverpool, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/
2006-02-03
Making History: Art and Documentary in Britain from 1929 to Now
Exhibition
Mrs Roberts
support: 406 × 508 mm
frame: 560 × 660 × 95 mm
Presented by the <a href="/search?gid=999999975" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Contemporary Art Society</a> 1945
<p>A student 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/e/euston-road-school" title="Glossary definition for 'Euston Road School'"><span>Euston Road School</span></a>, Lawrence Gowing attended throughout its existence. This later <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 Mrs Ellen Roberts, the Gowings' cleaning lady, was painted at their home in Paultons Square, Chelsea. In 1945 the Daily Sketch reported the sitter's comments: 'It's me, isn't it? Perhaps in another hundred years I will be hanging in a national museum'. In 1983 Sir Lawrence described Mrs Roberts as 'gaunt and gracious'. He also recalled how, when studying the work of Masaccio at that time, he 'realised that not only the transverse lighting but the unidealised sympathy and the visual authenticity that I prized 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/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> were all his invention'.</p>
Display caption
2004-08-31T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>N05627</b> MRS ROBERTS 1944
<br/> 
<br/>Inscr. ‘Gowing 44’ b.r.
<br/>Canvas, 16×20 (40·5×50·5).
<br/>Presented by the Contemporary Art Society 1945.
<br/><i>Exh:</i> Leicester Galleries, March 1945 (56).
<br/><i>Repr:</i> John Russell, <i>From Sickert to 1948</i>, 1948, pl.76.</p>
<p>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 painted at 8 Paultons Square, Chelsea, where the artist was living in 1943–4. Mrs Ellen Roberts, aged forty, was his charwoman and he liked her resolute expression so much that he asked her to pose for him. When it was exhibited 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/photograph" title="Glossary definition for 'Photograph'"><span>photograph</span></a> of her together with a reproduction of the picture appeared in the <i>Daily Sketch</i>, 10 March 1945. She said it was a little bewildering to find her blue-and-white spotted dress changed to green.</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, I
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-08T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
adults body cleaning domestic head / face individuals: female named individuals people portraits Roberts, Ellen woman work and occupations