In the Victorian period, women who sat for artists were considered morally suspect – even those who posed fully clothed. Securing suitable sitters was often difficult for artists, who often searched for attractive
shop-girls and other poorly paid women to be their models. In his autobiography, William Powell Frith described discovering the orange-seller who posed for this picture:
"Being in the habit of keeping my eyes pretty well open as I walked along the streets, they were one day gratified by the sight of an orange-girl of a rare type of rustic beauty. Her smile as she had offered
her oranges was very bewitching, and had no doubt assisted her in creating a taste for oranges on many occasions."
But Frith encountered many problems when he asked the orange-seller to visit his studio. Firstly, as a devout Catholic she insisted that he gained permission from her priest. The priest refused but Frith persisted
until she relented. Secondly, not being a professional model, she kept snoozing during sittings, so the intended picture of a laughing model became 'The Sleeping Model'.
In the painting, the exhausted woman is echoed by the stuffed dummy, which has collapsed into the arms of an equally inanimate suit of armour.
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