Stanley Spencer maintained the figurative tradition in British art before and after the Second World War at a time when abstraction was considered more sophisticated and avant-garde. He was also a talented, if not always flattering, portraitist and took inspiration from the northern old master tradition, especially the work of Jan van Eyck and Hans Holbein. This portrait was commissioned by Dr. Osmund Frank, along with a pendant of himself. Frank was a physician and Mayor of Maidenhead, and Mrs. Frank assumes the role of a provincial dignitary’s wife: she was, however, a talented figure in her own right, practicing psychiatry under her maiden name, Dr. Winifred Doherty. Shortly after sitting for Spencer, whom they counted as a personal friend, the Franks moved to Jamaica, where they continued to practice medicine. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016