Gabain first made her name as a lithographer and it was not until 1927, at the age of 44, that she exhibited her first oil painting. By the mid ’30s, Gabain’s oils were noted for their ‘delicacy of tone’ and ‘dryad-haunted fantasy’. They often featured her favourite model, Carmen Watson, who appears as a bride in seven of Gabain’s pictures, including this one. Carmen was the subject of a gushing article that appeared in the Sunday Express in 1936: ‘Carmen Watson, blonde, petite artist’s model, is the most sought-after girl in London. She has been working 12 hours a day for six years, and is now booked up for three months. “Long hair, punctuality, and an ‘indefinable something’ are my greatest assets”, she said …. “Artists tell me I am the Botticelli type. They say there is something about my smile they can’t quite capture. So they go on trying …. Even Mr Gerald Kelly, who usually paints only his wife, did a portrait of me.”’

Our painting was admired at the Royal Academy in 1948 by The Sketch for its ‘delicately light … colour and composition’, and by The Scotsman: ‘Ethel Gabain’s seated figure is delicate in tonality and acute in its characterful drawing.’