Oil painting, 'Mrs Gilbert Russell, Sitting in Bed' by Boris Anrep, oil on canvas, c.1934-35

Oil painting entitled 'Mrs Gilbert Russell, Sitting in Bed'. Mrs Russell is depicted wearing a yellow blouse and sitting up in the centre of a large double bed, with an ornate headboard, reading.

Bequeathed by Mrs M. J. A. Russell

Bequeathed by Mrs M.J.A. Russell, 1982

Historical significance: Boris Anrep (1883-1969) was born in St Petersburg to a noble Russian family. He trained as a lawyer until a sculptor friend convinced him that he should become an artist. Anrep moved to Paris to study art, and eventually specialised in mosaic making. Through the painter Henry Lamb, he became friends with Duncan Grant and Augustus John, through whom he gained access to the artistic and intellectual avant-garde of the Bloomsbury Group. In 1912 Roger Fry asked Anrep to choose Russian pictures for the Second Post-Impressionist Exhibitionat the Grafton Galleries in London, and Anrep also contributed to the catalogue.

From 1918 Anrep lived in London and began to work as a mosaicist. As a private commission for Augustus John in 1919 he created a large mantelpiece depicting the artist with his wife, mistresses and children (now in the V&A). However, Anrep's most significant contributions to art in Britain were public commissions: the mosaics he made for the floor of the octagonal gallery beneath the rotunda in Tate Britain, and those he created for the National Gallery. In the National Gallery mosaics he portrayed his friends, many of them well-known writers and artists of the Bloomsbury Group. Among the figures of 'The Modern Virtues' (one of four sections of Anrep's mosaic scheme) is Maud Russell, the subject of the present portrait, and also the artist's mistress. This portrait, bearing the title 'folly', commemorates her act of financing the mosaics.

Maud Russell (1891-1981) was a well-known society hostess and collector; her husband, Gilbert Russell, was a merchant banker. As well as sitting for Anrep, she was painted by William Nicholson, William Orpen and Ambrose McEvoy, and in 1937 commissioned portrait drawings from Henri Matisse. The Russells bought Mottisfont Abbey in Hampshire (now National Trust) in 1934, and four years later commissioned the young artist Rex Whistler to paint a magnificent trompe-l'oeilmural in the drawing room.

Anrep's informal portrait of Maud Russell, showing her sitting up in bed and reading letters, was presumably painted around 1930, and was presumably a private commission from the sitter.

Anrep died in June 1969 at Maud Russell's London home in Hyde Park Gardens. In 1970 Russell presented to the V&A a large number of designs and cartoons for mosaics from the artist's estate (E.661-1970 to E.693-1970).

After Russell's death in 1982, works from her collection of modern British and Continental pictures were included in a sale at Sotheby's. However, along with Anrep's large design, made in 1945, for the mosaic pavement on the landing at the entrance to the National Gallery (E.14-1983), Russell bequeathed the present oil painting to the V&A.

Based on Maud Russell's engagement diaries and letters to her from Boris Anrep, it seems likely that the pair did not meet until 1934. The diaries show that Russell was ill in bed with some illness in December 1934 and January 1935. During this time, Anrep made two visits to Russell. The paiting may date from this time.

Boris Anrep (1883-1969) was a Russian-born artist who settled in Britain, where he became associated with the Bloomsbury Group. This informal portrait of Anrep’s friend Maud Russell, showing her sitting up in bed and reading letters, was presumably painted in early 1930s. Russell was a socialite and art patron, who entertained many modern British artists, designers and critics at her home at Mottisfont Abbey in the mid-20th century.

P.60-1982