Figures in interiors were a favorite subject for Gilman. In London, artists often gathered in domestic spaces to show their work and exchange ideas. The Camden Town Group, for instance, held regular “at homes” in their studio. This sense of intimacy appears in both paintings, in which Gilman gives equal attention to the striped wallpaper and to the figures themselves, using vibrant colors reminiscent of French postimpressionism. The sitters were artists in his circle: his wife Sylvia and Stanislawa de Karlowska, who was one of the few women founders of the London Group, an important avant-garde exhibiting society. Gilman became the London Group’s first president.
Text: Yale Center for British Art.
