Lot 86: Valentine Cameron Prinsep, RA (British 1838-1904)

Portrait of May Princep
inscribed '1 sitting 1868/29 July' in pencil on the stretcher
oil on canvas
76 x 63 cm. (30 x 24 3/4 in.)

The sitter in the present lot is Mary Emily Prinsep known as 'May' (1853-1931), who was a cousin of the artist. May was the daughter of Charles Robert Prinsep,Aadvocate-General of Calcutta, and the niece of Henry Thoby Prinsep, who was the owner of Little Holland House, where George Frederic Watts lived for 24 years. Thoby was also the father to Val Prinsep (his second son), and adopted May upon her father's death, when she was eleven.

Interestingly, the Watts Gallery collection contains two portraits of May Princep, both of which depict the sitter in her early teens; the first, an oil portrait by Watts, was painted between 1867 and 1869, while the second is another depiction of May by Valentine Prinsep himself, painted in bodycolour (undated). The hair line, the forehead, the chin, cheek and ear seem to be virtually identical. Mary Seton Watts commented that at Little Holland House, May 'often sat to Mr Watts and her cousin Val Prinsep, her Aunt refusing this to all other artists'. The collection also contains an oil portrait of May's daughter, Nancy Hitchens, painted by Val Prinsep in the 1880s.

We are extremely grateful to Julia Dudkiewicz, Assistant Curator of the Watts Gallery, for identifying the sitter, and for her assistance in preparing the catalogue entry for this lot.