Gwen John said that she had tried to make the head of this woman look like apaintingof the Virgin Mary by Albrecht DZrer, suggesting a link with traditional images of the Annunciation. However, she later decided to improve the picture and made a second version, using her ownportraitinstead of the idealised head.

The interior is Gwen John’s own room in Paris. The frameddrawingsof cats on the wall behind the figure are also by Gwen John.

It is generally accepted by those who knew Gwen John that this is an early self-portraitand was painted in Paris. Gwen John painted several pictures of this room and the wicker chair. A very similar picture was in the Quinn Collection and in it the sitter is turned more towards the window and wears a bow in her hair (sold American Art Association, New York, 11 February 1927, lot 465, repr. p.183). Mrs Frances Cornford of Cambridge owns a small interior painted in the same room with the artist sitting in the chair (exhibitedN.E.A.C., spring 1908 (109), as ‘La Chambre sur le Cour’); ‘A Corner of the Artist's Room in Paris’, 1900–5 (?), is reproduced by John Rothenstein,Modern British Painters: Sickert to Smith, 1952, pl.18.

Presented by the Contemporary Art Society 1917.

Not inscribed; N03174