Not on display
- Artist
- Frank Huddlestone Potter 1845–1887
- Medium
- Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions
- Support: 514 × 714 mm
- Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Purchased 1932
- Reference
- N04617
Display caption
The girl is the artist's fiancée Ellen Whelan. The setting of a parlour with one or two people playing at the piano was a popular subject for Victorian artists (see The Awakening Conscience displayed nearby). Here, however, Potter shows the girl slumped in her chair looking absentmindedly into the room. The dimness of the interior is accentuated by light reflecting off the brass straps on the piano and the white cuff of her costume. Although the idle mood recalls the work of Whistler, unlike the languid posture of The Little White Girl displayed nearby, this sitter simply looks bored.
Gallery label, August 2004
Does this text contain inaccurate information or language that you feel we should improve or change? We would like to hear from you.
Explore
- emotions, concepts and ideas(16,660)
-
- emotions and human qualities(5,351)
-
- contemplation(146)
- domestic(1,813)
-
- music room(11)
- fine arts and music(3,760)
-
- instrument, piano(141)
- chair(922)
- actions: postures and motions(9,098)
-
- sitting(3,321)
- woman(9,055)
- individuals: female(1,658)
You might like
-
Briton Riviere Sympathy
c.1878 -
Frank Huddlestone Potter A Girl Reading
date not known -
Sir John Everett Millais, Bt The North-West Passage
1874 -
Sir William Quiller Orchardson Her Mother’s Voice
exhibited 1888 -
Frank Holl Hush!
1877 -
Frank Holl Hushed
1877 -
Philip Wilson Steer Mrs Cyprian Williams and her Two Little Girls
1891 -
Henry Tanworth Wells Victoria Regina
1880 -
James Clarke Hook Young Dreams
1887 -
Sir William Quiller Orchardson The First Cloud
1887 -
Thomas Benjamin Kennington Orphans
1885 -
Philip Wilson Steer The Music Room
1905–6 -
Frank Bramley Primrose Day
1885 -
Frank Huddlestone Potter A Music Lesson
1887 -
Théodore Roussel The Reading Girl
1886–7