The c. 1920 painting Sunday Afternoon was painted by Leonard John Fuller (1891-1973) and appears to show his own family snoozing in their drawing room after a Sunday lunch.
“The picture is an ideal addition to the Geffrye’s collection because it is such an evocative depiction of a familiar domestic scene,” the museum said in a statement to ATG. The Geffrye specialises in the history of the home and features a series of period rooms as well as depictions of daily life from the past.
The painting includes Marjorie Mostyn, Fuller’s wife (right) and his young son John. The older models are thought to be the parents either of Fuller or Mostyn.
It was priced at a four-figure sum and was acquired with support from the Art Fund and the Arts Council England/Victoria & Albert Museum Purchase Grant Fund. It measures 75cm x 1.05m and is signed and dated 'Leonard J. Fuller / '2[?]' at the bottom right corner (the last number of the date is illegible but possibly 1924).
The gallery added that the painting “captures the warmth and comfort of the hearth” so important in domestic history.
It follows Sim Fine Art's sale of Feliks Topolski’s very different work Germany Defeated to the Tate in July last year.
