Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Chantrey Bequest
Collection
<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 Raynes
Presented by the Trustees of the Chantrey Bequest 1922
actions: postures and motions
adults
clothing and personal items
domestic
domestic
hands clasped
hat, cap
housekeeper
individuals: female
interiors
living room
named individuals
objects
people
portraits
Raynes
sitting
woman, old
work and occupations
painting oil paint canvas
Mrs Raynes
support: 686 × 559 mm
frame: 927 × 792 × 108 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> 1922
<p><b>N03803</b> MRS RAYNES 1922</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Not inscribed.
<br/>Canvas, 27×22 (68·5×56).
<br/>Chantrey Purchase from the artist 1922.
<br/><i>Exh:</i> N.E.A.C., June–July 1922 (23); Tate Gallery, April–July 1929 (38); National Gallery, June–August 1943 (52); Tate Gallery, November–December 1960 (74).
<br/><i>Lit:</i> MacColl, 1945, pp.13, 58–61, 104, 219, repr. pl.21.
<br/><i>Repr:</i> <i>Artwork</i>, No.17, 1929, p.11; Ironside, 1943, pl.65; Sir John Rothenstein, <i>British Art since 1900</i>, 1962, pl.8.</p>
<p>Margaret Jones (‘Jane’), afterwards Mrs Raynes, was a young Welshwoman who entered the Steer family's service as children's nurse at the time the artist was born. After her marriage she left the family but returned on the death of her husband, when she first acted as cook to Steer's mother until 1898, and then became housekeeper to the artist. She died in 1929 aged ninety-one. It was she who presented the two-year-old Steer with a box 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/w/watercolour" title="Glossary definition for 'Watercolour'"><span>watercolours</span></a>. MacColl wrote (<i>op. cit.</i>, p.104) of this <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> that ‘the background was part of the memorial, being that of her habitual station as an invalid’. It was painted in 1922 at Steer's house in Cheyne Walk. MacColl also notes in his catalogue (<i>ibid.</i>, p.219) that the picture was exhibited at the 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/a/academy" title="Glossary definition for 'Academy'"><span>Academy</span></a> in the winter of 1922. Several Chantrey purchases were hung in the R.A. summer exhibition, 1922, but not listed (information from Mr Sidney Hutchison). 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 Mrs Raynes, when younger, is reproduced by MacColl (<i>ibid.</i>, pl.9).</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
2004-10-05T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: postures and motions adults clothing and personal items domestic domestic hands clasped hat, cap housekeeper individuals: female interiors living room named individuals objects people portraits Raynes sitting woman, old work and occupations