Oil paint on canvas
Tate Britain
Tate Collection
Works with images
Works on display
General Collection
Chantrey Bequest
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/meredith-frampton-1112" aria-label="More by Meredith Frampton" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Meredith Frampton</a>
Portrait a Young Woman
Presented by the Trustees of the Chantrey Bequest 1935
actions: postures and motions
adults
Austin-Jones, Margaret
fine arts and music
individuals: female
instrument, cello
leisure and pastimes
music
music and entertainment
named individuals
objects
people
portraits
sheet music
standing
woman
<p>Frampton painted the sitter, Margaret Austin-Jones, standing next to a cello. He noted that, as she was very musical, the cello was an 'appropriate symbol.' Frampton said that he made this painting 'to celebrate an assembly of objects... beautiful in their own right’. Frampton's mother made the dress Margaret is wearing in the painting. The white vase on the table in the background was designed by Frampton. This painting relates to full-length portraits of women, associated with the work of earlier artists. However the clarity and precision of Frampton’s painting style gives this work a modern feeling.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2020</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
16 November 2000 – 30 September 2001
2001-09-30
16 November 2000 – 16 April 2001
2001-04-16
2000-11-16
Montréal Museum of Fine Arts (Montréal, Canada)
http://www.mmfa.qc.ca
6 June 2001 – 30 September 2001
2001-09-30
2001-06-06
Robert Rubin
2000-11-16
Alfred Hitchcock
Loan-out
19 June 2002 – 8 September 2002
2002-09-08
19 June 2002 – 8 September 2002
2002-09-08
2002-06-19
National Gallery, Sainsbury Wing (London, UK)
2002-06-19
Fabric of Vision: Dress and Drapery in Painting
Loan-out
5 December 2005 – 27 September 2015
2015-09-27
5 December 2005 – 27 September 2015
2015-09-27
2005-12-05
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
2005-12-05
Realisms
Collection based display
31 October 2022
31 October 2022
2022-10-31
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2022-10-31
Gallery 3
Collection based display
Portrait of a Young Woman
support: 2057 × 1079 mm
frame: 2145 × 1174 × 65 mm
Presented by the Trustees of the <a href="/search?gid=999999977" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Chantrey Bequest</a> 1935
<div class="text">
<p>
<i>Portrait of a Young Woman </i>1935 is a painting by the British artist <a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/meredith-frampton-1112">Meredith Frampton</a>. An elegantly dressed young woman with light auburn tightly waved hair and pale skin is depicted standing firmly <i>contrapposto</i>, staring steadfastly outwards and toward her left. Wearing a floor-length silk dress with an ivory skirt and a pale lilac bodice, the model’s left arm is bent at her elbow and held horizontally across her body, while her right arm is angled upright resting closely against her right breast. Surrounding the woman are several objects realised in a neoclassical style. In the right of the composition is a cello that leans against a round stone pedestal, on top of which are piled several books. On the left is a round side table with a partially unfurled paper scroll, a cello bow, a white vase and the head of a camellia flower. The vase holds a tree branch with dark green glossy leaves that points upward while bending slightly outward to the left. The curve of the branch echoes the formal configuration of the model’s pose and the shape of the other curved objects in the composition, such as the cello and the scroll. The work is inscribed ‘19|MF|35’ in the top right.</p>
<p>Frampton painted <i>Portrait of a Young Woman </i>using oil paint on canvas over the course of a year in 1934–5. It was made in the studio he inherited from his father, the sculptor George Frampton (1860–1928), that was located in St John’s Wood, London. Portrait painting was an unusually protracted process for Frampton, who routinely took twelve months to complete a work, often fabricating the objects he required for the background himself. As such, the items he selected for the painting<i> </i>were often carefully chosen based on their ability to survive the lengthy procedure. Tate curator Richard Morphet described Frampton’s technique for making the portraits in the following manner: ‘Frampton did not use photographs, and although a gifted draughtsman he made use only of preparatory drawings. He preferred to draw direct with the brush, which permitted a greater precision than he could achieve in line. He would sometimes make preliminary oil sketches of a sitter’s face or hands’ (Morphet 1982, pp.17–18). A photograph of Frampton working on this painting in 1934 clearly shows his working method. In the image we see Frampton standing in front of the canvas with his paintbrushes in his hands. The painted figure of the woman is almost fully complete and two preparatory oil sketches (one of her head and the other of her folded left arm) are pinned to the left side of the canvas. In the background, only the outline of the cello is visible. Its bridge and strings have been fluidly, but precisely, outlined in oil paint, as have the base of the side table and the unfurling paper scroll (see Morphet 1982, p.2).</p>
<p>The model for the painting has been revealed to be Miss Margaret Austin-Jones (later Mrs T.R. Evans), who was twenty-three at the time the work was executed. ‘The sitter,’ Frampton noted in 1977, ‘was very musical, though not a performer, and a cello an appropriate symbol – there was also the challenge of having to draw it correctly in perspective’ (quoted in Morphet 1982, p.62). The portrait, he explained, ‘was painted as a relaxation (rather a strenuous one) after a series of commissioned portraits and it made a welcome change to paint an assembly of objects which appealed to me as being beautiful in their own right and lacking any need for embellishment’ (quoted in Morphet 1982, p.62). According to Morphet, the model’s dress was made from a <i>Vogue</i> pattern by Frampton’s mother, the artist Christabel Cockerell (1863–1951). The vase, made in mahogany, was designed by Frampton himself.</p>
<p>The work relates to the tradition of full-length <a 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'">portraits</a> of women that is associated in particular with the work of earlier artists such as Anthony Van Dyck (1599–1641) and Thomas Gainsborough (1727–1788). However, the level of detail and clarity of each object, along with the distinctive colour palette, give the portrait an unmistakeably modern feel. Morphet compared Frampton’s paintings to the early works of Giorgio de Chirico (1888–1978) and René Magritte (1898–1967) for their shared qualities of ‘extreme stillness, acute awareness simultaneously of the present moment and the past’ and fascination with the object (see Morphet 1982, p.25). <i>Portrait of a Young Woman</i> was first exhibited at the<i> </i>Royal Academy of Arts in London 1935, shortly after Frampton’s election as an Associate Member. It was also exhibited in 1982 at the Tate Gallery, London, and Ferens Art Gallery, Hull, as part of the artist’s first solo exhibition, which coincided with his eighty-eighth birthday.</p>
<p>
<b>Further reading</b>
<br/>Richard Morphet, <i>Meredith Frampton</i>, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1982, pp.62–3, reproduced pp.15, 63.</p>
<p>Judith Wilkinson<br/>May 2016</p>
<p>
<i>Supported by Christie’s.</i>
</p>
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Summary
2017-02-07T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<div class="text">
<p>Meredith Frampton painted Margaret Austin-Jones in a tall vertical format. This echoes the full-length portraits of women painted in the 17th and 18th centuries. However, the precision with which Frampton paints, combined with the work’s feeling of extreme stillness, gives this work an uncanny, modern tone. Frampton said that he made this painting ‘to celebrate an assembly of objects... beautiful in their own right’. He noted that, as Austin-Jones was very musical, the cello was an ‘appropriate symbol’. Frampton also designed the white vase on the table.</p>
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Online caption
2023-12-04T00:00:00
online-caption
ONLINE_CAPTION
<p><b>N04820</b> PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG WOMAN 1935
<br/> 
<br/>Inscr. ‘19 MF [in monogram] 35’ t.r.
<br/>Canvas, 81×42 1/2 (206×108).
<br/>Chantrey Purchase from the artist 1935.
<br/><i>Exh:</i> R.A., 1935 (319).
<br/><i>Repr:</i> <i>Royal Academy Illustrated</i>, 1935, p.69.</p>
<p>The artist wrote (22 January 1960): ‘I prefer the sitter for this picture to remain anonymous. She was not a professional musician.’</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
2004-07-20T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: postures and motions adults Austin-Jones, Margaret fine arts and music individuals: female instrument, cello leisure and pastimes music music and entertainment named individuals objects people portraits sheet music standing woman