David Bomberg (1890-1957)

Between 1929 and 1938 Bomberg painted a series of intimate and powerful portraits of Lilian. In talking about another sitting of this period, Lilian described how she responded to the challenge of posing for Bomberg, 'You must give out your whole being, the same as painting. I was giving my whole soul to him' (see W. Cork, David Bomberg, London, 1987, p. 193).

William Lipke writes of how Bomberg 'moved from the external to the internal point of view when presenting his figures ... intuitively presenting the personality beneath the cloak of paint, he has managed to create what he labelled the "essence of life" of his sitter ... Bomberg's portraits of the nineteen-thirties, especially those studies of Lilian represent one of the finest achievements in British portraiture of the twentieth century' (see W. Lipke, David Bomberg, A Critical Study, London, 1967, pp. 70-72).