Model Seated on Floor c. 1893

Thomas Robert Way made this lithograph, ‘Model Seated on Floor’, at the turn of the 20th century, a time of huge social change in Britain. Way was the son of a printer, and his technical mastery of the lithographic medium allowed artists such as Whistler and Rothenstein to make prints of their work. The image suggests a figure from classical antiquity, but the rather ordinary features of the model remind us of the here and now. At this time, the New Sculpture movement was critiquing academic conventions of idealization and promoting a greater naturalism in depictions of the human body. Meanwhile, debates were raging about the role of women in society. Did Way’s image comment on these issues? Was it conservative or progressive? By researching exhibition reviews and archival material from the period, we can start to understand the place of artworks like this within a much wider set of social and institutional relations.