The Artist's Mistress by Charles Sims RA RWS, 1873-1928. Circa 1900. Tempera, signed. 14 x 20 1/2 inches
Comentary by Rupert Maas
In the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition of 1924, Sims exhibited his Mrs. Jeudwine and her son Wynne. It was the artist's very public acknowledgement of his mistress Vivienne Jeudwine. Our painting dates from the same period. Sims met her in 1920 and made several studies of her and her son Wynne (Sims could well have been the father). He was quite obsessed with her and her remarriage to another man in April 1928 wounded him badly, perhaps fatally.
Sims, always highly experimental and technically innovative, was by this date developing methods of using tempera on paper, in his case tempera and thinly scumbled layers of paint. The clear brushwork and patches of visible ground indicate a mid-twenties handling when Sims' technique was close to that of his friend Orpen, especially when painting drapery.
We are grateful to Dr Cecilia Holmes for her help in the cataloguing of this painting.
References
Maas, Rupert. British Pictures. London: The Maas Gallery. 2006. Catalogue number 53.
The Maas Gallery, London has most generously given its permission to use in the Victorian Web information, images, and text from its catalogues. The copyright on text and images from their catalogues remains, of course, with the Maas Gallery.
Readers should consult the gallery website to obtain information about recent exhibitions and to order their catalogues. [GPL]
Last modified 11 August 2006