Seated Figure 1
- Artist: Claudette Johnson MBE
- Date: 2017
- Medium: Pastel and gouache on paper
- Dimensions: support: 1535 x 1130 mm
- Museum: Tate Britain
- Collection record: Tate Britain website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the “Seated Figure I” by Claudette Johnson MBE. The work, completed in 2017, is a large pastel and gouache drawing on white water‑colour paper. It shows the head and torso of a young Black woman with close‑cropped hair, her eyes looking down as if focused on a task. Johnson layers the figure with black pastel for skin, a few bold black lines for a cardigan, and a splash of bright yellow for an undershirt. The background is a grid of tiled blue rectangles, a simple geometric backdrop that lets the sitter stand out.
The subject is Beverly Bennett, an artist who has posed for Johnson since 2014. Johnson’s figures are famously monolithic, almost resisting the paper’s edges, and she builds them from a dry pastel sketch that she then covers with gouache and water‑colour, finishing with fresh pastel strokes. The result is a bold, immediate presence that moves beyond portraiture into a statement about visibility and humanity.
Johnson has long focused on Black women, creating larger‑than‑life images that speak to their politics and feelings. She says she’s “interested in giving space to Black‑women presence” and in resisting distortion or caricature. “Seated Figure I” is a vivid example of that practice, with its fluid lines and understated colours conveying both intimacy and urgency.
See it in person
Seated Figure 1 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.
