The Sleeping Model

The Sleeping Model
Artist	William Powell Frith
Year	1853
Type	Oil on canvas, genre painting
Dimensions	63.2 cm × 72.8 cm (24.9 in × 28.7 in)
Location	Royal Academy of Arts, London

The Sleeping Model is an oil on canvas genre painting by the British artist William Powell Frith, from 1853.¹

It shows a scene in the artist's own studio as he tries to paint a model who has fallen asleep in her chair. It features a self-portrait of himself as he doggedly continues to paint the young woman, an orange seller, smiling and awake. Frith had a great deal of trouble persuading the woman who he encountered in the street to pose for him, partly due to the fact that she was a Catholic. Having eventually coaxed her to sit, she then fell asleep while he was working.² The incident led Frith to produce this work inspired by what happened.³ It depicts a painter in the act who doing a portrait of a woman who has fallen asleep in a chair, while holding one orange in her hand. Al amost empty basket of fruits lies in the ground, near her. When Frith was elected to be a full member of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1853, he presented this as his diploma work. It remains in the collection of the Royal Academy.⁴