Footnotes

Provenance
The Artist, from whom acquired by
Helen Sutherland, by whom bequeathed to
Prviate Collection, U.K.
Their sale; Christie's, London, 26 June 2014, lot 109, where acquired by
Lady Dugdale

Exhibited
Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, David Jones: Paintings, Drawings and Engravings, 24 July-21 August 1954; this exhibition travelled to Cardiff, National Museum of Wales, August-September, Swansea, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, October, Edinburgh, Diploma Galleries, Royal Scottish Academy, November-December and London, Tate Gallery, December-January 1955
Edinburgh, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Paintings and Drawings from the Private Collection of Miss Helen Sutherland, 24 March-13 May 1962, cat.no.14
London, Hayward Gallery, Helen Sutherland Collection: A Pioneer Collection of the 1930s, organised by Arts Council of Great Britain, 10 December 1970-10 January 1971, cat.no.24; this exhibition travelled to Newcastle, Laing Art Gallery, 23 January-14 February, Cambridge, Kettle's Yard, 20 February-14 March, Cardiff, National Museum of Wales, 20 March-11 April and Kendal, Abbot Hall Art Gallery, 1-23 May 1971
London, Tate Gallery, David Jones, 21 July-6 September 1981, cat.no.96
Bristol, City Museum and Art Gallery, David Jones: Paintings, Drawings, Inscriptions, Prints, organised by Arts Council of Great Britain, 4 March-8 April 1989, cat.no.31; this exhibition travelled to Leeds, City Art Gallery, April-May, Cambridge, Kettle's Yard, June-July, and Llandudno, Oriel Mostyn, July-August 1989

Literature
Robin Ironside and Kenneth Clarke, The Penguin Modern Painters: David Jones, Penguin Books, London, 1949, pl.21 (col.ill.)
Nicolete Gray, The Paintings of David Jones, Lund Humphries, London, 1989, pl.24 (ill.)
Johnathan Miles and Derek Shiel, David Jones, The Maker Unmade, Bridgend, 2003, p.153, no.5 (ill.)
Thomas Dilworth, David Jones, Engraver, Soldier, Painter, Poet, Jonathan Cape, London, 2017, p.158 (col.ill.) (as The Seated Mother)

Born in 1906, Petra was the second daughter of artist Eric Gill. She modelled for several of her father's drawings and engravings, including Girl in the Bath and The Plait. Following his studies in London, the young David Jones moved to Ditchling, Sussex in 1921 to apprentice under Gill. Three years later Jones would follow Gill when he moved to Capel-y-ffin in the Welsh Black Mountains and there, in June, he became engaged to Petra. Jones marked the occasion by painting one of his most celebrated works - The Garden Enclosed (Tate, London). However, the engagement did not last. Petra broke it off in 1927 and later she married fellow craftsman Denis Tegetmeier. In the early 1930s Jones painted several depictions of his former fiancé, employing her image to represent an archetype for feminine beauty. These include Petra im Rosenhag (1931, National Museum of Wales, Cardiff) and the present example, which is also known as The Seated Mother.

This is understood to be Jones's final portrait of Petra and the last picture he would paint for several years, as shortly after its completion he suffered a nervous breakdown. The work was bought by the notable patron Helen Sutherland. Later the poet Kathleen Raine would recall that she observed Jones propping the picture against a chair in Sutherland's drawing room with a gaze Raine described as 'unforgettable... pondering sweetness'.