After Bathing

Mark Gertler 1891 - 1939

Summary

Full length frontal portrait of a young girl after bathing. The subject is seated in a chair draped in blue cloth and wears a classical style robe draped over her right shoulder. To her left she holds a small basket of flowers with a high loop handle. The background is a hazy and exotic landscape with a palm tree to the right. The model, Alice Edwards, lived in east London and often sat for students at the Slade in the 1920s. In a letter to the gallery dated 14 May 1924, Mark Gertler wrote "...there are two outstanding things that interested me and which I tried to explain. First is the charm of young girlhood, and in this I must confess I was assisted by the lucky find of such a charming young model. This is the second picture I have painted of her, the first a standing nude was equally admired and as quickly purchased as the one you have. Secondly I was anxious to combine that charm and beauty of the child with the velvety green of foliage and the beauty and poetry of landscape. This was no easy matter as I had hardly ever attempted such combination before, and doubly difficult because I wanted my picture to be absolutely finished and realised in every respect, so that the result should be monumental like the old masters, and the combination of figure and landscape appear inevitable. For the background I did a special landscape study from an actual place, the reality of which I hardly altered. There is one other point that always interested me - and that is the little hand among the flowers. I loved the effect and enjoyed painting it".