I picked up this wonderful portrait as an art postcard at the Towner Gallery in Eastbourne. It is a portrait of his sister Kitty by the amazing artist David Bomberg (1890-1957).
To me, this woman looks handsome, beguiling, complicated, the type who’s charming when she wants to be…which is exactly as I thought of the character of Mrs Bryce, Nancy’s employer in her very first job upon leaving school. I cannot now remember if this picture perfectly resembled Connie Bryce right away, or if Connie came to resemble her.
I don’t look for pictures to inspire or capture every one of the main character in my books, but sometimes the perfect image just presents itself. Nancy Parker’s Diary of Detection is set in 1920. The portrait is dated 1929, but it suits Nancy’s first encounter with this exotic creature:
At first I thought her dress very plain, but soon I realized that it was very MODERN.
Here’s another picture of Kitty, from the Tate collection.
Julia Lee Author 
I had a similar reaction to this Van Dyke self-portrait in London’s National Portrait Gallery: http://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/van-dyck/home.php. Something about his expression made me want to know the man — which may require making him a character in one of my books.