Although the sitter in this vivid portrait by English society portraitist David Jagger is at present unknown, her hair style and clothing suggests she was perfectly au fait with the latest 1930s fashions, as exemplified in contemporary popular cinema and theater.
Indeed the sitter, whose anonymity adds to her mystique, looks not dissimilar to the American-Chinese actress Anna May Wong, and just as the origins of today’s fashions can be traced to prominent celebrities, this hair style – a jet-black bob with a heavy fringe – is most commonly associated in the public imagination with Wong.
When exhibited at Bankfield Museum in Halifax in August 1939, the local press reviewed the portrait with great admiration, commenting on the ‘smooth skin textures’ and the bold color scheme of reds, greens and blacks.
Combining glamorous realism with energetic artistic force, Jagger depicts a quite astonishingly beautiful young woman -- the perfect shape of her rouged lips, the arching penciled brows, her hair sleekly bobbed. And then her sheer physical beauty: the refined and elegant bone structure, the softness of her skin, the depth of her gaze. The simplicity and directness of the pose - and the tension in the line of her brow - are elements that help give the portrait immense power only matched in intensity by the ravishing colors.
This portrait was exhibited in the touring exhibition "The Art of the Jagger Family" from 1939 to 1940, which was devoted to the work of David, his sister Edith and that of their late brother, Charles Sargeant Jagger. Interestingly, a photograph formerly in the family’s possession, shows David and a lady (likely Edith), seated in front of a selection of works chosen for the exhibition including this stunning portrait.
Creating simple, but elegant art made the reclusive Jagger one of the most highly regarded society portraitists in London with an illustrious set of patrons, including Queen Mary and the actress Vivien Leigh.
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