Studio RT Ltd

Description

We are pleased to offer for sale this beautifully executed three quarter length watercolour portrait of a very attractive lady, by one of the artists at the Navana Vandyk Studio in New Bond Street, London W.1. The portrait is signed Navana Vandyk, as it is from their studio, but Navana Vandyk is not a person, but a company. There is a Company label on the back of the frame.

The portrait depicts a blonde haired young lady, wearing a lilac coloured dress with full sleeves. She is seated and looking over her right shoulder. She has beautiful blue eyes and her hair is styled in the fashion of the period, which is 1948-1953. We know this as the company was only at 29 New Bond Street until 1953, after which time they occupied 29 & 30 New Bond Street.

Navana Vandyk Ltd were a company formed by the merger of Navana Ltd and Carl Vandyk, who were photographers and Navana Ltd had many branches around the country. Artists and photographers often worked closely together and early photographers always had artists in house, in order to tint photographs in colour.

Interestingly, we put 29 New Bond Street into google images and found a black and white photograph of this address in 1953, which showed the Navana Vandyk studio, featuring all the portraits in the window, some of which appear to be framed in similar frames to this one.

The portrait is framed in its original 4 1/4" ornate, swept gilt frame and linen slip. It is ready to hang.

Medium Watercolours