Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
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<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/wyndham-lewis-1502" aria-label="More by Wyndham Lewis" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Wyndham Lewis</a>
Edith Sitwell
Presented by Sir Edward Beddington-Behrens 1943
actions: postures and motions
adults
book - non-specific
chair
clothing and personal items
curtain
domestic
furnishings
globe
hat
individuals: female
interiors
literary
living room
named individuals
necklace
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poet
portraits
reading, writing, printed matter
scientific and measuring
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Sitwell, Edith
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<p>This painting, made over more than a decade, reflects the changing relationship between artist and sitter. The poet Edith Sitwell was part of an aristocratic and cultural elite. Lewis was close to the wealthy Sitwell family when he began this portrait commission. He hoped they might support him financially in the longer term. However, he abandoned the painting in October 1923 when he had to leave his studio, unable to pay the rent. He finally completed it in 1935. By this point, Lewis resented the Sitwells for being amateur artists and writers. He felt they should instead focus on supporting ‘real’ artists like himself.</p><p><em>Gallery label, April 2021</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
21 September 2001 – 7 July 2002
2002-07-07
21 September 2001 – 7 July 2002
2002-07-07
2001-09-21
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2001-09-21
Wyndham Lewis
Collection based display
1 March 2005 – 1 March 2005
2005-03-01
1 March 2005 – 1 March 2005
2005-03-01
2005-03-01
Olympia Exhibition Centre (London, UK)
2005-03-01
Spring Exhibition
Loan-out
3 July 2008 – 19 October 2008
2008-10-19
3 July 2008 – 19 October 2008
2008-10-19
2008-07-03
National Portrait Gallery (London, UK)
http://www.npg.org.uk
2008-07-03
Wyndham Lewis Portraits
Loan-out
5 February 2010 – 16 May 2010
2010-05-16
5 February 2010 – 16 May 2010
2010-05-16
2010-02-05
Fundación Juan March (Madrid, Spain)
http://www.march.es
2010-02-05
Wyndham Lewis
Loan-out
6 October 2010 – 25 April 2011
2011-04-25
6 October 2010 – 30 January 2011
2011-01-30
2010-10-06
Millennium Gallery (Sheffield, UK)
http://www.sheffieldgalleries.org.uk
19 February 2011 – 25 April 2011
2011-04-25
2011-02-19
Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery (Norwich, UK)
http://www.museums.norfolk.gov.uk
9 May 2011 – 6 November 2011
2011-11-06
2011-05-09
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2010-10-06
GBAD: Restless Times: Modern British Art 1914 - 1945
Loan-out
30 November 2012 – 25 September 2022
2022-09-25
30 November 2012
2012-11-30
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2012-11-30
Gallery 3
Collection based display
23 June 2017 – 9 January 2018
2018-01-09
23 June 2017 – 9 January 2018
2018-01-09
2017-06-23
Imperial War Museum North (Manchester, UK)
2017-06-23
The Enemy: The World and Wars of Wyndham Lewis
Loan-out
10 February 2018 – 29 April 2018
2018-04-29
10 February 2018 – 29 April 2018
2018-04-29
2018-02-10
Tate St Ives (St Ives, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/stives/
2018-02-10
Omega
Collection based display
Edith Sitwell
support: 864 × 1118 mm
frame: 1041 × 1300 × 85 mm
Presented by Sir Edward Beddington-Behrens 1943
<div class="text">
<p>This painting, made over more than a decade, reflects the changing relationship between artist and sitter. The poet Edith Sitwell was part of an aristocratic and cultural elite. Lewis was close to the wealthy Sitwell family when he began this portrait commission. He hoped they might support him financially in the longer term. However, he abandoned the painting in October 1923 when he had to leave his studio, unable to pay the rent. He finally completed it in 1935. By this point, Lewis resented the Sitwells for being amateur artists and writers. He felt they should instead focus on supporting ‘real’ artists like himself.</p>
</div>

Display caption
2021-04-20T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>N05437</b> EDITH SITWELL 1923–35
<br/> 
<br/>Inscr. ‘Wyndham Lewis’ b.l.
<br/>Presented by Sir Edward Beddington Behrens 1943.
<br/><i>Coll:</i> Bought by Major (later Sir) Edward Beddington Behrens from the artist summer 1936.
<br/><i>Exh:</i> On loan to the Tate Gallery between about 1936 and 1939; British Council, <i>Contemporary British Art</i>, Warsaw, Helsingfors and Stockholm, 1939 (55); <i>British Painting</i> since Whistler, National Gallery, 1940 (195); Tate Gallery, July–August 1956 (126), and Arts Council tour, 1956 (41).
<br/><i>Lit:</i> Wyndham Lewis, <i>Blasting and Bombardiering</i>, 1937, pp.215–16; Michael Rothenstein, <i>Looking at Paintings</i>, 1947, p.42, repr. p.43 (in colour); Handley-Read, 1951, pp.29, 40, 44, 72, 74, 96, repr. pl.37; Edith Sitwell, ‘Personal Encounters 3: Hazards of Sitting for my Portrait’ in <i>Observer</i>, 27 November 1960, p.24.
<br/><i>Repr:</i> <i>Studio</i>, CXXVII, 1944, p.148 (in colour); Sir John Rothenstein, <i>British Art since 1900</i>, 1962, pl.70.</p>
<p>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 Dame Edith Sitwell, the poet, begun in 1923. According to the sitter (<i>loc. cit.</i>) she sat ‘every day excepting Sundays for ten months. But in the end his manner became so threatening that I ceased to pose for him, and his portrait of me has, consequently, no hands’.</p>
<p>The portrait was not in fact completed until about 1935. Wyndham Lewis described his relations with the Sitwell family in <i>Blasting and Bombardiering</i>, pp.96–100.</p>
<p>Another ‘Portrait of Edith Sitwell’ was exhibited at the Leicester Galleries in July 1949 (26). There are also a number 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/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawings</span></a>.</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
2004-10-07T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: postures and motions adults book - non-specific chair clothing and personal items curtain domestic furnishings globe hat individuals: female interiors literary living room named individuals necklace objects people poet portraits reading, writing, printed matter scientific and measuring sitting Sitwell, Edith woman work and occupations