Artwork Title: Mrs Cyprian Williams and her Two Little Girls

Mrs Cyprian Williams and her Two Little Girls, 1891

Philip Wilson Steer

The unusual perspective of this composition, looking down on the subject, was influenced by the work of French artist Edgar Degas and the design of Japanese prints. It is used to convey a sense of claustrophobia and confinement. The wife of an art collector, Helen Cyprian Williams was a successful amateur artist renowned for her distinctive features and volatile temperament. The uneasy shift in scale from Mrs Williams to her daughters – and her gaze away from them, lost in thought – reinforces some undefined sense of separation. Her stillness invites us to speculate about what is running through her mind. Gallery label, May 2007 Mrs Williams was an artist, who exhibited with Steer at the New English Art Club, and her husband, T. Cyprian Williams, was a collector of art. D.S. MacColl recalled that the portrait was commissioned by another artist friend of Steer’s, Francis James (1849-1920). James owned the picture throughout his life, and it may be that it was painted at Steer’s request, but that he needed the commission in order to be able to devote the time to it. The design of the portrait is unconventional in that the point of view looks downwards from one corner. Mrs Williams is seen in profile, and her two daughters, placed on a bench that divides the picture diagonally, are seen from above. It is likely that Steer felt freer to be so unusual since the portrait was not commissioned by the sitter. MacColl noted that Steer was imitating the complex design of paintings by Degas, and of Japanese prints – ‘A curiosity in perspective grouping, traceable to Degas or Japanese design, marks the Mrs. Cyprian Williams with her Children’ (p. 101). The portrait was exhibited at the New English Art Club in 1891, where Steer was also competing with Sargent (1856-1925), who also favored unusual compositions, and often emphasized, as does Steer, the sitter’s hands. The connection with Japanese prints is made explicit by the additional tokens of the two Japanese dolls, and the Japanese fabric on the back of the armchair. This is one of the largest of Steer’s portraits. Its exhibition at the NEAC served to advertize his availability as an original portraitist, but did not lead to further commissions. [http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/steer-mrs-cyprian-williams-and-her-two-little-girls-n04422]
Uploaded on May 4, 2018 by Suzan Hamer

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