In the autumn of 2014, a long-lost painting by the Scottish artist John Duncan Fergusson re-appeared on the art market, having been consigned to an attic in Giverny, France, for the best part of a century. Dated 1916, Poise was last seen at Fergusson's one-man exhibition at the Connell Gallery, London, in May 1918 and had been reproduced in June that year in Colour magazine with an article entitled, ‘J. D. Fergusson: His Place in Art’. In remarkable condition, this striking portrait, notable for its clarity of design and colour, expressing both the self-assurance of the model and balance of the composition, justified its description as a rediscovered masterpiece. Upon its purchase by Richard Green, I contacted the Fergusson Gallery in Perth, who suggested that ‘the sitter for this extraordinary work may very well be Katherine Mansfield’.

There is, in the manner in which Fergusson constructed his likenesses, emphasising the lines or planes of the sitter's face, their individual hairstyle and characteristic articles of clothing, a striking resemblance to the author. Beyond these elements, the artist did not feel bound to reproduce the model's features slavishly. In fact, Fergusson did not need the model before him in order to recreate ‘the feeling’ of seeing her. The increasing intimacy of the artist and author at this time, however, provided opportunities to capture Mansfield's likeness and made it more tangible as a female, fellow creative with whom he felt an affinity. This companionable closeness, also felt and shared by Mansfield's husband, John Middleton Murry, led to an open and honest exchange of ideas, the sharing of each other's work and passionate support of it. Knowing the author well, it is possible that Fergusson knew Mansfield was completing ‘The Aloe’ and, though excited at the prospect of this new direction, felt unable to progress with her writing in 1916.

Poised, like Fergusson was, between the production of new, thoroughly modern work and its exposure in 1918, could the painting's title refer to Mansfield's exhilarated state of creative stasis?

Photographs of Mansfield at this time at the National Library of New Zealand document not only her distinctive hairstyle with blunt, angular fringe and jaw-length bob, but also a wide-collared white blouse with lapels reaching almost to the shoulders, as modelled in the painting.