Antonia Showering: The modern masters of the family portrait

Somerset-based painter Antonia Showering became particularly interested in painting her family while she was a student because they were reliably available. It’s another tradition: James Abbott McNeill Whistler’s dour portrait of his mother from 1871 only exists because his original model didn’t show up. Showering painted her younger brother most frequently while at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. “I assumed he was delighted to feature, but when I asked him about it, he seemed indifferent, and on reflection, that’s probably why it was him I chose to paint most at that time,” she says. “He didn’t sit in interesting positions, or get upset if it was distorted or unflattering. He also became a father young, so seeing our roles within the family move along life’s conveyor belt made me want to paint that.”