Wendy Baron suggests that the present composition is possibly a study of Nan Hudson and Ethel Sands, probably in the Granby Street studio, circa 1914, (private correspondence, April 2007).

Ethel Sands (1873-1962), painter and hostess of American birth and English upbringing, was a close friend of Sickert for many years. Sickert painted her on a number of occasions as well as her life-long partner, Miss Anna Hope (Nan) Hudson (1869-1957), also an American by birth, a painter, disciple of Sickert's, member of the Fitzroy Street Group and founder-member of the London Group. Sickert took great interest in their welfare and artistic education and greatly valued their friendship, as they did his. (See W. Baron, Sickert Paintings and Drawings, New Haven and London, 2006, pp. 378, 403).

We are grateful to Dr Wendy Baron for her assistance with the catalogue entry for this lot.