Soyer usually posed his models in his studio or home. Many of his paintings, such as Cynthia with Glass, show the figure surrounded by works of art. Such a presentation of a figure in an interior dates from the late nineteenth century, when James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) and Edgar Degas (1834-1917) started a vogue for including a painting or print in their scenes.
Soyer even followed the nineteenth-century artists’ practice of cropping the painting hanging on the wall in the background: Like them, Soyer arranged the composition so that the art objects are essential to the balance and harmony of the composition but do not distract from the figure. The artist conceived his studio paintings as arrangements, avoiding details to present large, colorful areas. By the 1960s Soyer’s palette had lightened and intensified. Cynthia with Glass has a carefully orchestrated, limited chromatic scheme established by the lavender wall and cool, sweet blue and green of Cynthia’s attire. Her skin reflects these colors in the shadows. Consequently, despite Cynthia’s weary, drawn face, the painting does not convey a spirit of defeat but rather of introspection.