Ambrose McEvoy

Ambrose McEvoy was one of the most sought-after British society portraitists of his time. Here the sitter Mrs St John Hutchison, the short-story writer Mary Hutchinson, and the mistress of Vanessa Bell’s husband Clive, who also painted her. In this work, Mrs Hutchison looks tentatively to the right side, with her hand to her heart, as if caught in a moment of deep thought or emotional distraught. McEvoy’s brush strokes are loose and flowing, and yet still capture the acute expression on the sitter’s face as well as the atmosphere of the room.

McEvoy began his career at the Slade School of Fine Art, following the advice of James Abbott McNeill Whistler. He was one of the central figures of the London art scene at the time, which included Augustus John, Gwen John and the Bloomsbury group. At first mainly interested in genre painting, he increasingly focused on portraiture after he exhibited a portrait of his wife Mary at the National Portrait Society in 1915.

McEvoy frequently experimented with different techniques and compositions, adopting unusual perspectives, unconventional pose or sometimes leaving his works purposely unfinished, as in the current work.