Lot 297: Lydia Amanda Brewster Sewell (American, 1859-1926), c.1910 Portrait of Florida Scott-Maxwell (née Pier)

Portrait of Florida Scott-Maxwell (née Pier)
signed 'A-Brewster Sewell a.n.a' (lower left) and inscribed with title, owner and artist's name and address (old label verso),
oil on canvas
202.5 x 99.5cm (79 3/4 x 39 3/16in).

*Property of artist's family*

PROVENANCE:
Miss Pier (according to label verso)

Florida Scott-Maxwell, née Pier (14 September 1883 to 6 March 1979) was a playwright, author and psychologist. Named for the state of Florida where she was born, Scott-Maxwell grew up in Pittsburgh and moved to New York at the age of fifteen to become an actress.

She soon embarked on a second career as a writer of short stories, moving on to write a weekly column for the New York Evening Sun in her twenties. She married Scott Maxwell-Scott in 1910, moving to his native Scotland the same year. The couple had four children before divorcing in 1929.

The author moved to London and developed an interest in analytical psychology in the 1930s, studying under Carl Jung in both Scotland and England.

Florida Scott-Maxwell wrote several books and plays in her lifetime, as well as working for women's suffrage. Her most famous work is The Measure of My Days (published 1968), a journal in which the author looked back over her life from the perspective of 82 years and examined the challenges and rewards of aging.