Studio RT Ltd

Description

We are delighted to offer for sale this stunning watercolour on ivorine, by the listed artist Maie L. Brooks, who has signed the painting across the lower right hand corner. There is something written underneath the signature, which is indistinct. It could possible be the date or, more likely ARWA. On the back on the old backing paper, there is a label stating the following 'The Wedding Guest' by Maie L. Brooks A.R.W.A. 29 Redington Road, Hampstead, London N.W.3.

As the artist was living at 166 Fordwych Road in both the 1901 Census and the 1911 Census, this dates the painting to after 1911. Obviously she and her husband Walter had moved up in the world, as the house in Redington Road is much larger, although they had a servant at their previous address.

The painting depicts an aristocratic lady who is wearing a cream satin dress, with a black lade jacket. She is wearing a large picture hat with a deep brim and a doubled string of pearls. She has a cream satin stole.

Maie L. Brooks was born in 1871 in Islington, London and her birth name was Marie Louise Marston. After her marriage to Walter Brooks in 1893, she presumably changed her name to Maie L. Brooks on her paintings to avoid confusion with another artist by the name of Maria Brooks who also painted figures and portraits.

She was a figure and portrait painter and a miniaturist who had studied under M. Durant. She exhibited between 1907 and 1933, including 3 paintings at The Royal Academy, 30 at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, 10 at The Royal Society of Portrait Painters, 5 at the RBA, and 2 at the Abbey Gallery. She died in Birmingham in 1948. She is listed in The Dictionary of British Artists (Collectors' Club).

The watercolour has been newly double mounted in two tone acid-free mountboard and is newly framed in an ornate dull silver 1 1/4" frame to suit. It will be supplied wired and ready to hang.

Image size 13 1/4" x 9 1/4" - 33.65cm x 23.5cm

Frame size 20 3/4" x 16 1/2" - 52.7cm x 41.9cm

Medium Watercolours with gum arabic on ivorine

Condition Excellent condition. Colours bright with no fading or foxing. The mounts and frame are new.