Portrait of Miss Ida Nettleship

This is a portrait of John’s wife Ida Nettleship (1977-1907). Ida was a star pupil at the Slade. After leaving, she lived in Paris with Gwen John. There she enrolled at the Académie Colarossi and took classes at James McNeill Whistler’s (1834–1903) Académie Carmen. Ida was the eldest daughter of celebrated animal painter John Trivett Nettleship (1841–1902). Her mother, Adaline (née Hinton 1856–1932), was a theatre dressmaker. Inspired by Rudyard Kipling’s (1865–1936) The Jungle Book (1894), Ida affectionately nicknamed her Slade friends after the book’s animal characters and referred to herself as ‘Mowgli’.