Guilhermina Suggia (1880 - 1950) was a Portuguese-born cellist. She studied in Leipzig under Pablo Casals, whom she is believed to have married in 1906. Starting in 1914, she spent her working life in England giving her last concert at the Edinburgh Festival in 1949.
Probably the most famous image of Madame Suggia is the magnificent oil portrait by the Welsh artist Augustus John. This picture was begun in 1920 but not finished till 1923. Apparently Suggia would play Bach while she sat. The result is a very realistic pose, captured, perhaps, at the moment of completion of one of the Bach Cello Suites, a position which certainly could not have been easily "held" by the musician for any length of time. Her left knee is particularly well and properly placed by the artist.
The portrait was shown at the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh in 1924, bought by an American but later returned to England and presented to the Tate Gallery. The painting measures 186 X 165 cm.
