Lot 5: Edith Martineau , 1842-1909 in rokeby park watercolour and bodycolour

signed with monogram and dated 75 l.l. watercolour and bodycolour

measurements note 25 by 34 cm., 10 by 13 in.

Christie's, 8 November 1996, lot 1;
Private collection

PROPERTY OF A LADY
Rokeby Park is an eighteenth century Palladian-style house and gardens, near Barnard Castle in County Durham. Velasquez' Toilet of Venus (National Gallery) hung at the house for many years, before the furore caused by its attack by suffragettes in the early twentieth century.

Edith Martineau was born on 19 June 1842 in Liverpool, one of eight children of Dr James Martineau (1805-1900) a Unitarian theologian and minister. She was the niece of the author Harriet Martineau. Following her early training at the Liverpool School of Art, Martineau moved with her family to London and she enrolled in classes at Leigh's School of Art. When she was aged twenty in 1862, she became one of the first women to be admitted to the Royal Academy Schools. She specialised in finely detailed watercolours and exhibited widely for over four decades.