We have something different for you this week: a close-up look at a remarkable work of art held at York Art Gallery.

The painting - ‘Nameless and Friendless’ by Emily Mary Osborn (1828-1925) - would have been the subject of Dorothy Nott's regular 'Artwork of the Month' talk organised by the Friends of York Art Gallery next month, were it not for coronavirus.

It is ‘one of the rare nineteenth century paintings to deal... with the lot of the woman artist," Dorothy explains.

The painting shows an aspiring female artist standing before a sceptical art-dealer as he examines her work. She is young, unmarried or widowed, her clothes and umbrella shabby, her eyes downcast. Beside her is a young boy carrying a second canvas, which the dealer may or may not ask to see. It is altogether humiliating for her.

It gets worse. To the left sit two well-dressed men in top hats, ostensibly viewing some salacious prints but actually eyeing up the young woman. She entered the shop as an artist, but she is now being objectified as an object of desire. Her humiliation is complete...