How should one go about describing this painting in a gallery label? Or perhaps not even describe it but to direct visitors’ eyes, brains or emotions in a certain direction? It’s part of the skill of the curator to write this text and also the interpreter to advise on communication tactics. I’ve used a label for this artwork in teaching for a few years, which reads like this (along with the line breaks used in the gallery copy):

You can tell that this scene was pained rapidly:
John’s initial pencilled outline is evident
and the canvas shows through in places.
Even so, he has used modern spontaneity
to suggest a romanticised rustic idyll.

The model is John’s second wife, Dorelia.
She is dressed ‘gypsy style’ with loose clothing.
John was fascinated by the Romany way of life.
He led an undisciplined, bohemian existence, wandering
through the countryside in a caravan
with his family, illegitimate children and hangers-on.
Critics found paintings like this ‘uncouth and grotesque’
when John exhibited a series of them in 1910.
 

The copy above always provokes interesting conversations. I noticed in the gallery recently that it’s now been replaced with:
 

The model is John’s second wife,
Dorelia. She is dressed much more
informally than was standard for
women at this time and wears loose,
flowing clothing. John was fascinated
by the Roma way of life. He led a
bohemian existence, and often took to
wandering through the countryside in
a caravan with his family, friends and
children.

Which do you prefer?