Lot 205: f - MARIE STILLMAN 1844-1927

signed on the reverse: Mrs Stillman

watercolour with bodycolour

34 by 52 cm. ; 13 1/2 by 20 1/2 in.

The limestone Tudor farmhouse of Kelmscott Manor on the Thames near Lechlade, was the country residence of the designer William Morris, from the summer of 1869 onwards. 'The beautiful old house, and the quaint, romantic chamber that served for a studio, became the resort of poets and artists, critics and connoisseurs, disciples and aspirants, in companies small indeed, but brilliant and memorable...' (Esther Wood, Dante Rossetti and the Pre-Raphaelite Movement, 1898, pg. 178).

Morris shared the lease of Kelmscott with Dante Gabriel Rossetti and it was here that Rossetti painted several of his most atmospheric images of Morris's wife, the beautiful Jane with whom Rossetti was infatuated. Marie Stillman was a frequent visitor to Kelmscott after Morris' death in 1896 and was a great friend of Jane. In 1913 Marie exhibited a work at the Royal Academy entitled Kelmscott Manor. It is possible that the Royal Academy exhibit was the present lot or lot 204.