Rose Pettigrew was around 13 years old when she sat for this painting. Rose and her two sisters were established artist’s models who had already sat for important artists such as John Everett Millais (1829-1896) and James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) before modelling for Steer. However, being an artist’s model was a vulnerable position for a young girl. There was likely a power imbalance with the 29-year-old Steer. Rose wrote in her diary:

‘I love posing for Philip; and first of all posed for little money as I thought he was very poor, and child as I was, wanted to help him’.

The mirror in the background of the sparsely-furnished room reflects the closed door, emphasising the sense of enclosed interiority and domesticity. Steer often painted children, who he usually depicted playing outside in the Summer, or in domestic scenes like this one during the Winter.

The economic use of loose, broad brushstrokes show the influence of French impressionism on Steer’s figurative painting.

Steer was a pioneer of naturalistic and seemingly spontaneous bedroom scenes inspired by the French Impressionist artist, Edgar Degas (1834-1917). This painting offers an intimate or even voyeuristic glimpse into a private and informal ritual behind closed doors. It is unclear whether the subject is dressing or undressing.

When Steer created this painting, he was considered a leading British Impressionist. However, he was ridiculed by English critics, partly for the perceived indecency of his chosen subject matter.

In this relaxed and intimate painting, Steer creates an almost abstract impression of his mother, Emma Steer née Harrison (1816-1898) in her final years.

The artist was born in Grange Mount, Birkenhead to Emma and Philip Steer (1810-1871). The elder Philip Steer was a portrait painter who gave the young artist his earliest training. As a child, Philip Wilson Steer slept with a paintbox under his pillow. He later studied in Paris from 1882-1884 where he became a follower of Impressionism. His family wealth provided a financial safety net for him to experiment with newer styles of painting.

This close-up of a young woman so immersed in her book that she casually sinks into the sofa suggests the possibility of pleasure, privacy and escapism encapsulated in the act of reading.

The cropped perspective of this painting is indebted to Edgar Degas (1834-1917), the French Impressionist painter. Like Degas, Steer truncated figures in his painting compositions to create the effect of capturing snapshots of daily life. Steer believed that the painter should be ‘inspired by his own time’ and ‘find his pictures in the scenes around him.’

This painting was likely inspired by James McNeill Whistler’s (1834-1903) ‘Symphony in White, No. 2: The Little White Girl’ (1864). Whistler’s influence can be observed in the composition, subject matter and the use of colour tones to emphasise mood.

The three-quarter angle and blurred focus of the model’s reflection in the mirror obscures her facial features and the focus of her gaze. It is unclear whether the model is absorbed in her own reflection or whether she is returning the gaze of the artist and the viewer.

After his favourite model broke off their engagement, Steer increasingly painted voyeuristic nudes. This work was partly inspired by representations of Venus and other idealised classical female figures from the Italian Renaissance to the nineteenth century. The context of mythology or allegory legitimised the erotic or objectifying subject matter.

This painting of Rose Pettigrew was probably inspired by the Rokeby Venus, a famous 17th century painting of the Roman goddess of love and beauty that now hangs in the National Gallery. Similarities can be observed in the model’s pose, the use of framing drapery, and the contrasting red and grey tones.

Steer depicted Pettigrew many times from 1887 to 1895, including in over 20 oil portraits. The two became romantically involved and were engaged at one point. Pettigrew later broke off the engagement.

This oil portrait shows Steer’s characteristically looser handling of paint, particularly in the billowing pink sleeves. The stacked canvases and frames against the back wall suggest that this scene is set in the artist’s studio.

The sitter who stares intently at the viewer in this painting was Molly Dixon, one of Steer’s favourite models. Steer painted Molly’s sister Ethel in ‘The mantelpiece’ (1894) which can also be found in the Williamson collection.

Steer typically depicted his nudes in naturalistic poses in everyday settings, such as this modest sofa. This unidealised presentation of the female nude was viewed as more risqué than posing a nude in deliberately stylised, historical or classical contexts as seen in Steer’s ‘Reclining Nude’ (1896).

The painting demonstrates the artist’s fondness for loosely and rapidly applied brushstrokes. Over time, his figurative paintings became less radical and displayed a higher degree of finish.

The artist’s good friend Walter Sickert may have been referring to Steer when he playfully wrote in 1910: ‘A painter is guided and pushed by the atmosphere of English society… the Impressionists put themselves out more than we do in England..."