Mrs. Atkinson (Gwen John)

Mrs. Atkinson
Artist	Gwen John
Year	c. 1897
Medium	Oil paint, panel
Dimensions	30.5 cm (12.0 in) × 31.1 cm (12.2 in)
Location	Metropolitan Museum of Art
Accession No.	1979.135.27
Identifiers	The Met object ID: 481922

Mrs. Atkinson is a painting (portrait) by Gwen John. It is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.^[1]

Description and interpretation

The work depicts John's cleaning woman, Mrs. Atkinson, sitting in a room covered with flocked wallpaper.^[2] There is a sheep skull on the mantelpiece, though this is not thought to have symbolic meaning.^[3]

Simon Schama writes that she is "glancing anxiously sideways, uncertain of what is wanted of her."^[2] The painting was exhibited at the New English Art Club in the spring of 1900, marking a strong phase of her career that also saw her Self-portrait on display there about that time.^[3] It is considered among the "carefully executed tonal paintings of rather detailed genre subjects" in her first mature oil works.^[4]

References

1. "Mrs. Atkinson". Metmuseum.org. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 2017-08-10.
2. Schama, Simon (2016). The Face of Britain: A History of the Nation Through Its Portraits. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780190621896.
3. Taubman, Mary (1985). Gwen John, the artist and her work. Cornell University Press. p. 24. ISBN 9780801418945.
4. Gaze, Delia (2013-04-03). Concise Dictionary of Women Artists. Routledge. p. 386. ISBN 9781136599019.