Studio RT Ltd

Description

We are offering a delightful watercolour miniature by the artist ISABEL F. DOUTON, who has signed the portrait to the lower left. The painting depicts a very pretty girl in profile, with her hair plaited and coiled into the 'earphone style'. She is wearing an ornament in her hair and is wearing a white dress with blue ribbon threaded through the neck and a coral necklace.

We have dated this painting by doing research into the hairstyle, which became popular with young women from about 1916, who didn't want to cut their hair into the bobbed style, but wanted a more modern style than the fussy Edwardian styles. As the artist died in 1925, we date this painting to 1916-1925.

ISABEL F. DOUTON, was a watercolourist and miniature painter, who initially lived in Cheltenham, but who had moved to London by 1904. She was elected an Associate Member of the Royal Society of Miniature Painters, Sculptors and Engravers in 1905. From doing a google search, we have found that she exhibited watercolour portraits at the Royal Academy in 1910 and 1911 and she is listed in The Dictionary of British Artists.

According to this reference book, she exhibited 19 paintings at The Royal Academy, 60 at The Royal Miniature Society, 12 at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, 3 at the New Gallery and 1 at The Royal Society of Artists, Birmingham.

This is, obviously, a rare work to come to the market, as we have found no recent auction records for her, although on google, we have found a pair of pastel portraits by her, for sale at auction at Gorringes, Lewes in 2003, estimated at £300-£400.

The painting is framed in a gilt metal frame with convex bevelled glass and hanging ring.

Medium Watercolours on paper.