Hertford House and the Wallace Collection are a poor person's dream of how a rich person's home should look. It is a grand mansion stuffed with ornate furniture and art. To this day tourists come and photograph themselves in its opulent interiors to play-act, if only for a moment, that they live here. Shirley Smith took this a lot further. When we draw something, to a certain extent we take possession of it; as is often said, we capture it. Here is a young Millicent standing at the entrance of Hertford House greeting a friend and her friend's mother. It is a luxurious fantasy of domestic bliss. As it was for the hero on the heartbreaking denouement of Yann Martel's novel The Life of Pi, perhaps Shirley's imaginary past was a comforting refuge from the awful truth.

Grayson Perry