Arthur Hughes (1832-1914)
Portrait of a lady, three-quarter length, seated in a chair, wearing a white lace bonnet trimmed with blue ribbon and a large cameo brooch at her neck
Signed and dated 1851, possibly retouched 1853, oil on canvas with an arched top, 90cm by 69.5cm

Provenance: Anonymous sale, Christie’s, London, 15 December 1966, lot 134 (£40 to Holt); anonymous sale, Christie’s, London, 23 March 1967, lot 61 (50 guineas to Maas); purchased for £57 15s. by Stone Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne; bought by the Stephensons in January 1968.

The estate of the late Ian Stephenson of Laithes, Penrith, Cumbria

Exhibited: London, Royal Academy, 1853 (107) (as ‘A Portrait’).

Literature: Spectator, 28 May 1853, p. 517; Leonard Roberts and Stephen Wildman, Arthur Hughes – His Life & Works, Woodbridge, 1997, p. 125, catalogue no. 12.

A finely painted and characterful portrait of an elderly woman. According to Leonard Roberts, it seems likely that the portrait represents a cousin of the artist, either Mary Ann or Frances Dredge. It is one of the Pre-Raphaelite artist Arthur Hughes’s earliest works, pre-dating his association with Rossetti and his work on the Oxford Union mural project.

We are grateful to Christopher Newall for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.