• Search Icon
  • Toggle Menu
  • Close Menu

Mrs Anna Knight (1941-42)

Walter Richard Sickert

oil on canvas

Tate, London, Liverpool and St Ives

Mrs Anna Knight (1941-42)

Details

Classification:

Painting

Materials:

Oil, Canvas

Dimensions:

152.4 x 76.2 cm

Accession Number:

N06142

Credit:

Presented by the Contemporary Art Society, 1953

Scheme:

Gift

Ownership history:

Commissioned from the artist by Charles Neil Knight (1865-1947) of Bath, and left unfinished with him at the artist’s death, 1942; gifted by Mrs Anna Newton Knight to the Contemporary Art Society, 1949; presented to Tate, 1953

Subject:

Portraits

This is last and unfinished portrait by Walter Richard Sickert, commissioned in 1941 by the sitter's husband, the artist Charles Neil Knight, (1867-1947), who was a governor of Bath Academy of Art and honorary secretary of Bath Society of Artists. Sickert's usual habit of painting from drawings and photographs was abandoned for a series of studies from life at the home of Mrs Anna Newton Knight.

A cupboard with glass doors and vase of flowers stand behind the lady who is seated on a sofa in the foreground, her long black dress mingling into the mauve and deep blue tones of the carpet. Framed by a white pie-frill collar, the features of her face have been lightly sketched in, partly in charcoal or black oil crayon. A pale pink and light blue camaieu preparation is still visible across areas of the canvas, where dull beige tones have been used to articulate the interior ceiling and background walls. Sickert eventually became too ill to continue work on the portrait and died soon after in January 1942. It gifted by the sitter to the Contemporary Art Society in 1949 and presented to Tate in 1953.

The collection that owns this artwork may have more information on their own website about permitted uses and image licensing options.

Artworks by Walter Richard Sickert

Browse more relevant artworks.

You Might Also Like