Portrait in Black

Philip Wilson Steer 1860 - 1942

Summary

Three-quarter length, three-quarter right side portrait of a young woman in a heavy black mid-Victorian period dress. Her fair hair is pinned in braids across her head. She is seated in a cane backed chair at a small side table, with one elbow resting on the table, a book in one hand resting in her lap, and her head turned to face the viewer. She sits against a plain, pale background with a curtain just visible to the left. Steer used a professional model for this painting, believed to be Miss Theodora Bennett (1879-1970) who lived in South Kensington with her family, not far from Steer’s home and studio, until she married in 1907 . Theodoras sister, Helen, who gave her profession as ‘Actress’ when she married in 1914, is another possibility.