Red Portrait (Portrait of the artist's wife, Froanna)
- Artist: Wyndham Lewis
- Date: 1937
- Medium: medium : material : oil & support : material : canvas
- Museum: The Courtauld Gallery
- Collection record: The Courtauld Gallery website
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About this artwork
This is the Red Portrait (Portrait of the artist’s wife, Froanna) by Wyndham Lewis. Painted in 1937, the work is an oil on canvas that captures a moment of surreal intimacy. Lewis’s wife, Gladys—known in his circle as Froanna—poses so that her body seems to emerge from the walls and then dissolve back into the surrounding space, creating a ghostly apparition. The effect is intensified by the odd, lunar‑lit landscape that hangs above the mantelpiece, as if the scene were set on a distant moon. The dominant red palette unifies the composition, lending both warmth and a hint of foreboding to the portrait. This piece stands out as one of Lewis’s most intricate explorations of portraiture, blending a realistic likeness with an uncanny, almost dream‑like quality. It invites viewers to linger, noticing how the colors bleed into each other and how the figure’s presence feels both intimate and alien, a testament to Lewis’s skill in merging human subject with imaginative surroundings.
See it in person
Red Portrait (Portrait of the artist's wife, Froanna) hangs in The Courtauld Gallery at Somerset House, London. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
