Philip Wilson Steer OM, 
British 1860-1942 - 
Miss Montgomery, c.1907-08; 
oil on canvas, 67.1 x 50.8...

Philip Wilson Steer OM, 
British 1860-1942 - 

Miss Montgomery, c.1907-08; 

oil on canvas, 67.1 x 50.8 cm 

Provenance: 
J. Leger & Son., 1942 (according to the label attached to the reverse of the stretcher); 
Major E. O. Kay (according to the label attached to the reverse of the stretcher); 
Sotheby's, London, Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculptures, 21st May 1986, lot 95; 
with Anthony Hepworth Fine Art, Bath; 
private collection and thence by descent 

Exhibited: 
City Art Gallery, Leeds, 'Wilson Steer Memorial Exhibition', March-May 1944; 
Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield, 'Modern Pictures from Major E. O. Kay's Collection', February 1953 

Literature: 
D.S. MacColl, 'Life, Work and Setting of Philip Wilson Steer', London, 1945, p.214 

Note: 
this sensational portrait is a brilliant example of Wilson Steer's work from the early 20th century and is one of a number of sensual images made of women in a blue dress in an interior. Like 'Girl in a Blue Dress, c.1891' now in the Tate collection, the dress is painted in a highly impressionist manner, the artist evoking the feel and movement of the fabric. Other examples are 'The Blue Dress, c.1910' (National Galleries of Scotland) and 'The Blue Dress, 1982' (The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge) which shares the confrontational gaze of the sitter of this work. Here, however, Steer creates a sense of emotional ambiguity from his sitter, through his expressive brushwork and less rigorous, academic approach of his earlier portraits. In a description of a similar work 'The Blue Dress, 1911', Jane Munro has described this as a new form in his work, 'the sitter treated dispassionately, as a foil to the strong effects of light and shade, and her strength of character conveyed solely by means of the expressive quality of the paint.’ 

A previous owner of the work, Major E. O. Kay (Edwin Ody Kay 1885–1969) was an important patron of Modern British art, appearing in portraits including 'Major E. O. Kay' by Stanley Spencer (Ferens Art Gallery) and 'Major E. O. Kay (aka Portrait of a Man Wearing a Monocle), c.1935' by William Roberts. His collection also included works by Walter Sickert, George Clausen, Augustus John, Tristram Hillier and Paul Nash.