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Lot Essay
Painted in 1924, Model Resting (Eileen Mayo) was executed at the height of Dod Procter’s artistic career, when she was one of the most well-known artists in Britain. When her 1926 painting, Morning, was displayed at the 1927 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, it was voted Picture of the Year and subsequently bought for the Tate Gallery, where it currently hangs. Throughout the 1920s Procter continued to paint single figures, sometimes nude, others in softly draped clothes.
The present work belongs to the series that Procter began around 1922: simplified, monumental portraits of young women that she knew. Shown in a relaxed pose and with her eyes closed, Eileen Mayo is painted with great sensitivity, indicative of a close bond between the artist and sitter. In the 1920s and 1930s, Mayo was an in-demand model for artists including Dame Laura Knight and Vanessa Bell, as well as Procter. She herself had studied at the Slade School of Fine Art and the Central School of Arts and Crafts and went on to forge a long and successful career as a multi-disciplinary artist. In 2022, Towner Eastbourne held a major solo exhibition of Mayo’s work.
The present work belongs to the series that Procter began around 1922: simplified, monumental portraits of young women that she knew. Shown in a relaxed pose and with her eyes closed, Eileen Mayo is painted with great sensitivity, indicative of a close bond between the artist and sitter. In the 1920s and 1930s, Mayo was an in-demand model for artists including Dame Laura Knight and Vanessa Bell, as well as Procter. She herself had studied at the Slade School of Fine Art and the Central School of Arts and Crafts and went on to forge a long and successful career as a multi-disciplinary artist. In 2022, Towner Eastbourne held a major solo exhibition of Mayo’s work.