The Sleeping Model

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The Sleeping Model
ArtistWilliam Powell Frith
Year1853
TypeOil on canvas, genre painting
Dimensions63.2 cm × 72.8 cm (24.9 in × 28.7 in)
LocationRoyal Academy of Arts, London

The Sleeping Model is an 1853 genre painting by the British artist William Powell Frith.[1] It shows a scene in the artist's own studio as he tries to paint a model who has fallen asleep in her chair. It features a self-portrait of himself as he doggedly continues to paint the young woman, an orange seller, smiling and awake. Frith had a great deal of trouble persuading the woman who he encountered in the street to pose for him, partly due to the fact that she was a Catholic. Having eventually coaxed her to sit, she then fell asleep while he was working.[2] The incident led Frith to produce this work inspired by the incident.[3] When Frith was elected to be a full member of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1853 he presented this as his diploma work. It remains in the collection of the Royal Academy today.[4]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Trotter p.133
  2. ^ https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/work-of-art/the-sleeping-model
  3. ^ Wood p.34-35
  4. ^ https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/the-sleeping-model-148787

Bibliography

[edit]
  • Green, Richard & Sellars, Jane. William Powell Frith: The People's Painter. Bloomsbury, 2019.
  • Trotter, David. William Powell Frith: Painting the Victorian Age. Yale University Press, 2006.
  • Wood, Christopher. William Powell Frith: A Painter and His World. Sutton Publishing, 2006.
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