Philip Wilson Steer, O.M., N.E.A.C. (1860-1942)

Steer painted this canvas to hang above the mantlepiece of the principle room on the first floor of his house at 109 Cheyne Walk. Although he had a studio at the top of the house, he preferred to use the drawing room as both a reception room and studio. It was elegantly furnished with furniture of the Louis XVI and Regency periods, Aubusson carpets and floral chintz, while a small room at the back was used to stack canvases and other painting paraphenalia. The walls were hung with a large collection of his own work, together with Sickert's portrait of himself as a youth, paintings by Couture and Greaves and watercolours by such friends as Sargent and Tonks.

The overmantel formed a centrepiece for this ensemble. Steer was influenced both by the painters of the French Rococco: Boucher, Watteau and Fragonard, and also the landscape tradition of Gainsborough onwards. The picture was intended to link the interior and exterior of his house: beyond the flower basket, drapery and globe, the Thames and Battersea is evoked as a Claudian ruin. Recte et Suaviter translates as 'Justly, and mildly': the significance of the title remains elusive.

The overmantel passed from Steer to Laurence Alexander Harrison (1867-1937), a close friend, neighbour (at 46 Cheyne Walk) and patron.