The Artist's Studio (oil on canvas)

The artist has painted himself sketching in his studio at 104 Priory Road, Hampstead, London. He wears two tone wing tip shoes that were fashionable in the 1920s and 30s, and is surrounded by the props and costumes that he used in his paintings, with various books, sculpture, pictures textiles, pictures and other objects scattered about that seem to represent his interests. A nude model poses in the centre and the artist's wife is seated on the divan wearing costume, whilst draped lay figures, male and female, stand to her left and right. Behind them is a plaster frieze of St George slaying the dragon with a massive overmantle supported by nude male female and male caryatids. The very different representations of women in the painting are a fascinating combination, commanding the attention of the artist in different ways. The artist was Neapolitan, and had made a good career for himself as an illustrator and artist in his adopted country of Britain, and had covered the First World War for The Sphere magazine. Some of his paintings were set in ancient Rome, from which the Hollywood director Cecil B DeMille is said to have designs made for the costumes and set of his last film, The Ten Commandments. Accompanied by photographs of the artist's studio and of the painting.