A Proud Girl

Celebrated for her sensitive portrayals of young women, this pensive study of a girl was likely painted on one of Procter’s trips to Jamaica in the mid-1950s. Her portraits in this decade signify a significant period of exploration and innovation for the artist. Where her earlier works were more academic in their approach to precise detail, her portraits from the 1950s, such as this one, demonstrate a shift towards a loose, impressionistic style. This shift encouraged a greater tonal range and a more realistic rendering of light and shadow which Procter skilfully utilised in her portraits of Jamaican sitters.
Procter often criticised other artists, such as Augustus John, for their failure to convey the nuances of black sitters' skin tones, despairing that he painted all black skin in the same colour. Procter's own interpretation of flesh tones is observed in this very work, through the use of nuanced hues. Procter's genuine concern to depict black subjects in such a considered way was rare amongst British artists at this date.
Additionally, Procter’s extensive travels abroad were prompted by the unexpected death of her husband Ernest in 1935, which left her devastated and in need of change. The following year, she visited America and Canada, and by the 1950s her practice was governed by her extensive travels, which took her further afield to the Canary Islands, Tenerife and Jamaica. She returned to the Caribbean islands repeatedly, visiting Jamaica in 1953-4, 56, 58 and 61.