Studio RT Ltd

Description

We are delighted to offer for sale this very pleasing portrait by the Victorian artist Annie Ward, who has signed the painting in the lower left hand corner and dated it 1893. She has also signed and dated the painting verso. There is an inscription on the slip which reads (Hilda daughter of J. Greaves Esq.) and gives the address of the artist as 46 Thorpe Villas, Kings Road, Kingston on Thames.

The painting depicts a young girl, Hilda Greaves, possibly in her early teens, wearing a broderie anglaise dress and the most amazing bonnet with broderie anglaise edging, which is tied in a bow under her chin, with her brown wavy hair loose and framing her face. There is a bunch of violets attached to the front of the dress.

Annie Ward, who was active between 1886 and 1898, was a Croydon painter. She moved to Plymouth in 1880, then back to Croydon in 1889, but by 1893, was living in Kingston on Thames, Surrey. She exhibited 4 works at the Royal Academy, including 'Azaleas' and 'Fairy Tales'.

She is listed in The Dictionary of British Artists (Collctor's Club) and The Dictionary of Victorian Painters by Christopher Wood. 3 of her Royal Academy exhibition listings are shown in Graves Dictionary which only includes exhibitions up to 1893.

The painting is framed in it original gilt slip and the gilt frame is of later date. The slip and frame measure 4 1/4". It is ready to hang.

Medium Oils on J. Barnard & Son canvas