Oil paint on canvas
Tate Britain
Tate Collection
Works with images
Works on display
General Collection
Contemporary Art Society
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>
Seated Nude Black Hat
Presented by the Contemporary Art Society 1941
actions: postures and motions
adults
clothing and personal items
domestic
female
Geary
hat
individuals: female
interior - non-specific
interiors
named individuals
nudes
objects
people
portraits
sitting
woman
<p>Wilson Steer, one of the most impressionist of British painters, posed his nudes in everyday settings, and here the model is playfully trying on a hat she has found in the studio. Steer did not exhibit this sketch, and it was chosen for the Tate Gallery directly from his studio in 1941, by the then Director Sir John Rothenstein. Steer told him ‘friends told me it was spoiled by the hat; they thought it indecent that a nude should be wearing a hat, so it’s never been shown’.</p><p><em>Gallery label, February 2016</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
12 March 2004 – 30 September 2004
2004-09-30
12 March 2004 – 14 June 2004
2004-06-14
2004-03-12
National Gallery of Australia (Canberra, Australia)
9 July 2004 – 12 September 2004
2004-09-12
2004-07-09
Art Gallery of South Australia (Adelaide, Australia)
http://www.artgallery.sa.gov.au
2004-03-12
The Edwardians
Loan-out
23 June 2006 – 4 December 2006
2006-12-04
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2006-06-23
Philip Wilson Steer The British Impressionist
Collection based display
1 August 2008 – 15 November 2008
2008-11-15
1 August 2008 – 15 November 2008
2008-11-15
2008-08-01
Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (Middlesbrough, UK)
http://www.visitmima.com/
2008-08-01
Nudes
Loan-out
5 November 2016 – 31 August 2025
2025-08-31
5 November 2016 – 5 February 2017
2017-02-05
2016-11-05
Art Gallery of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia)
http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au
18 March 2017 – 16 July 2017
2017-07-16
2017-03-18
Auckland Art Gallery (Auckland, New Zealand)
11 August 2017 – 4 February 2018
2018-02-04
2017-08-11
Seoul Olympic Museum of Art (Seoul, South Korea)
24 March 2018 – 24 June 2018
2018-06-24
2018-03-24
Yokohama Museum of Art (Yokohama, Japan)
13 July 2018 – 28 October 2018
2018-10-28
2018-07-13
Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts (Kaohsiung, Taiwan)
2016-11-05
Nude: art from the Tate collection
Tate partnerships & programmes
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
Seated Nude: The Black Hat
support: 508 × 406 mm
frame: 690 × 591 × 75 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> 1941
<div class="text">
<p>Wilson Steer, one of the most impressionist of British painters, posed his nudes in everyday settings, and here the model is playfully trying on a hat she has found in the studio. Steer did not exhibit this sketch, and it was chosen for the Tate Gallery directly from his studio in 1941, by the then Director Sir John Rothenstein. Steer told him ‘friends told me it was spoiled by the hat; they thought it indecent that a nude should be wearing a hat, so it’s never been shown’.</p>
</div>

Display caption
2016-02-24T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>N05261</b> SEATED NUDE: THE BLACK HAT <i>c.</i> 1900</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Inscr. ‘P. W. Steer’ b.r.
<br/>Canvas, 20×16 (51×40·5).
<br/>Presented by the Contemporary Art Society 1941.
<br/><i>Coll:</i> Acquired by Sir John Rothenstein from the artist for the C.A.S. 1941.
<br/><i>Lit:</i> John Rothenstein, ‘Two Visits to Steer’ in <i>Burlington Magazine,</i> LXXXV, 1944, p.202; MacColl, 1945, pp.155, 199.
<br/><i>Repr:</i> <i>Studio</i>, CXXII, 1941, p.66 (in colour); Anthony Bertram, <i>A Century of British Painting 1851–1951</i>, 1951, pl.150 (in colour).</p>
<p>A letter from Sir John Rothenstein to MacColl (21 December 1943; the text appears again almost verbatim in the <i>Burlington Magazine, loc. cit.</i>) describes the writer's first visit to Steer on 19 February 1941, when, as a newly appointed buyer for the Contemporary Art Society, he found <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/steer-seated-nude-the-black-hat-n05261" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05261</span></a> in Steer's studio and asked to bring it away as a possible acquisition for the Tate Gallery. Steer remarked to Rothenstein that he had never publicly shown this work because ‘when it was painted, years ago, friends told me it was spoiled by the hat; they thought it indecent that a nude should be wearing a hat, so it's never been shown’. Another nude study ‘The Black Hat’, which in 1945 belonged to Mrs Fox, shows this model (a Miss Geary) wearing the same hat, but standing instead of being seated.</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
2004-07-21T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: postures and motions adults clothing and personal items domestic female Geary hat individuals: female interior - non-specific interiors named individuals nudes objects people portraits sitting woman