Flora’s Cloak
- Artist: Gluck
- Date: c.1923
- Medium: Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions: support: 664 x 410 mm
- Museum: Tate Britain
- Collection record: Tate Britain website
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About this artwork
This is the “Flora’s Cloak” by Gluck, painted around 1923. In the centre sits a full‑length nude woman, pale pink skin and a headdress that looks like yellow‑flamed straw. Her limbs are arranged in a quiet geometry, echoing Leonardo’s Vitruvian Man, while her left arm extends out at 45 degrees with her palm open to the viewer. A billowing cloak of spring flowers—daisies, green stems, light pink petals, and touches of red, blue and purple—hovers behind her, creating a soft, floral halo that seems to drift in the air.
The background is a pale blue that gives the impression of a clear, cloudless sky. Below her, a small section of earth, rounded pebbles, a reflective pool, and distant green fields ground the composition. Her toes almost touch the grass, suggesting that she brings the flowers down to earth with her presence.
Gluck, a London‑born artist who spent summers in Cornwall and was part of the Newlyn School, painted this only nude in his late twenties. The work echoes Botticelli’s *Primavera*, where the goddess of flowers scatters blossoms, but Gluck’s Flora appears more immediate, a goddess in mid‑flight. The title recalls the Roman myth of Flora, the spring goddess, and the painting celebrates the female form free from the male gaze. This piece is a quiet, lyrical moment captured by a queer artist whose love for light and color made every flower and shade count.
See it in person
Flora’s Cloak is in the collection of Tate Britain on Millbank, 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.
