Harold Gilman 1876-1919

Mrs Sylvia Gilman, the Artist's wife, and thence by family descent to the present owner

London, Lefevre Gallery, Paintings and Drawings by Harold Gilman, 1948, no.24;
London, Arts Council, Harold Gilman 1876-1919, 1954, no.22;
London, Reid Gallery, Harold Gilman 1876-1919, April 1964, no.15;
Colchester, The Minories, Harold Gilman 1876-1991: An English Post-Impressionist, March 1969, no.34 (and travelling to Oxford and Sheffield).

Like many of Gilman’s portraits, The Yellow Hat draws on the artist’s immediate circle for its subject, the sitter being Stanislawa de Karlowska, the wife of his friend Robert Bevan.

In the summer of 1897, Bevan travelled to Jersey to the wedding of his friend and fellow artist, Eric Forbes Robertson. There he met de Karlowska, a Polish art-student and by December of that year they were married. His wife’s family were gentlemen farmers of substance in Poland and Bevan and his wife visited their estate at Szeliwy a number of times. A competent painter herself, her style is similar to that of Bevan, although often differed in subject. She was painted at least three times by Gilman, and also sat to other artists of the group, including Gore. She was remembered by contemporaries as having great charm and beauty.

Generally dated to circa 1913 (although dates up to 1915 have been suggested), The Yellow Hat sees the artist and sitter engaging much more directly that in many of Gilman’s portraits of this period, something that is heightened by the concentration of handling in the face and hat, leaving the background and dress much more loosely painted.