Dame Edith Sitwell
- Artist: Alvaro Guevara
- Date: 1916
- Medium: Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions: support: 1829 x 1219 mm
- Museum: Tate Modern
- Collection record: Tate Modern website
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About this artwork
This is the “Dame Edith Sitwell” by Alvaro Guevara. Painted in 1916, it captures the renowned poet Edith Sitwell, born 1887, daughter of Sir George Sitwell and sister of Sir Osbert and Sacheverell. At the time, she was the editor of *Wheels*, an anthology that championed modern verse. In the portrait, she sits relaxed on an Omega Workshops dining chair – a sleek, modern piece crafted by Roger Fry, the painter‑critic who ran the decorative arts venture from 33 Fitzroy Square in Bloomsbury. Both Sitwell and Guevara were patrons of Omega, so the setting is both personal and emblematic of the avant‑garde circle they inhabited. The work is oil on canvas, executed with a subtle, almost atmospheric palette that lets the sitter’s face and the chair’s angular lines converse quietly. The painting was presented to the National Art‑Collections Fund in 1920 by Lord Duveen, Walter Taylor and George Eumorfopoulos, cementing its place in the modern British canon.
See it in person
Dame Edith Sitwell is in the collection of Tate Modern on Bankside, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
