Lot 173: Frances C. Fairman (British, 1836-1923) Portrait of a Welsh Terrier 20 x 14 in. (51 x 35.5 cm.)

Portrait of a Welsh Terrier
signed with initials (lower left) and inscribed 'To Mr Gounod from/one of his very many English admirers/FC Fairman/June 5th 1877' on mount ' in pencil on the mount
watercolour
20 x 14 in. (51 x 35.5 cm.)

The reference to Mr Gounod in the pencil inscription may well refer to the Classical composer Charles Gounod (1818-1893). The son of an artist, Gounod was a prolific composer of operas and sacred music, and is best remembered for his opera Faust, based on Goethe's drama, and the song 'Ave Maria', an arrangement of his Meditation for violin on Bach's Prelude No.1 in C.

Gounod's father was an artist and Gounod spent several years in England between 1871 and 1875, where his music appealed to Victorian sentimentality. He acquired an English mistress, the notorious Georgina Weldon, who he eventually married, however the marriage ended in acrimony and a potentially ruinous court case. He founded the Gounod Choir, which eventually became the Royal Choral Society.

It is quite possible that he would have met Frances Fairman on one of his trips across the Channel.