Lot 44: Laura, Lady Alma-Tadema (British, 1852-1909) A child reading

Laura, Lady Alma-Tadema (British, 1852-1909)
A child reading signed 'LAURA' (incised lower right)oil on panel 22.5 x 30.5cm (8 7/8 x 12in).

Provenance: The Fine Art Society, London, May 1910.Private collection, UK. Exhibited: London, Fine Art Society, Lady Alma-Tadema Memorial Exhibition, 1910, no. 99.The reviewer in The Times of 10 May 1910 wrote, 'The Memorial Exhibition of the paintings of Lady Alma Tadema which opens today at the rooms of the Fine Art Society in New Bond Street ought to be seen by all who care for refined workmanship, an exquisite sense of colour and a love for beauty, especially the beauty of children'.A month later in June, Marion Hepworth Dixon wrote in The Studio that, 'In the recent exhibition at the Fine Art Society's Rooms in New Bond Street few things were more interesting to Lady Tadema's admirers than the sketches there seen for the first time. Almost exclusively painted in oil they [show] the artist at work grappling with things at first hand'.In 2007, a painting by Laura titled Almshouses at Langley was sold. Like the present lot, this was also an unfinished oil sketch Exhibited: at the same Memorial Exhibition (no. 87). Both paintings have identical frames suggesting that they were unfinished at the time of Laura's death, and framed especially for the exhibition.We are grateful to Carolyn Epps Dixon for her assistance in cataloguing this lot.