Nov 29, 2025
Marguerite Kelsey
Artist: Meredith Frampton (British, 1894–1984)
Date: 1928
Medium: Oil on canvas
Collection: Tate Britain, London, United Kingdom
Description
A professional artist’s model in the 1920s and 1930s, Marguerite Kelsey (1908?–1995) was renowned for her gracefulness and ability to hold poses for a long time. Her dress and shoes were chosen and purchased by Frampton for this portrait. They are both classical and, being uncorseted, deliberately modern. The simple, short-sleeved pale tunic dress worn with low-heeled shoes and her straight hair were all essential elements of the fashionable boyish ‘garçonne style’ created by the couturiers Coco Chanel and Jean Patou from the mid-1920s.
#portrait#marguerite kelsey#artist's model#oil on anvas#painting#fine art#woman#meredith frampton#british painter#couch#table#white dress#basket#flowers#red shoes#british art#20th century painting#tate britain#elegant#artwork#oil painting#sitting#ivory dress#light grey curtain#grey sofa#cloth#vase#modern art#european art#british culture
