Sylvia Gosse 1881-1968

Executed circa 1914 - 16.
Dr Wendy Baron has confirmed that the use of the mirror as a compositional device strongly suggests that the work is a self portrait and the image is highly comparable to Harold Gilman's Portrait of Sylvia Gosse (1912, Coll. Southampton City Museum).

Sylvia was the daughter of Sir Edmund Gosse, librarian at the House of Lords and studied at St John's Wood School of Art and the Royal Academy Schools. Her father was highly disapproving of her artistic tendencies and it was only after Sylvia met Sickert in 1908 whilst attending his etching classes at the Westminster School of Art that Sickert was able to persuade her father that Sylvia should become a professional artist. The handling and colouring of the present work is highly reminiscent of the older master's manner and Gosse later taught with Sickert at his Rowlandson House School in Belsize Park. They were close friends until Sickert's death in 1942 and Gosse looked after him in Dieppe after the death of his second wife in 1920 and later established the 'Sickert Fund' to ensure financial stability for him in old age.