Lot Essay
This watercolour is based on a drawing from Punch of 7 June 1879, wherein a society beauty, thought at the time to be Lily Langtry, an actress and mistress of the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII, is upstaged by the artist's daughter, whose performance at the piano enthrals her audience and eclispses Miss Langtry's startling loveliness. Although he would have been familiar with her profile through contemporary reproductions, du Maurier did not meet Lily Langtry until 2 November 1879, at the wedding of Effie Millais, Sir John Everett Millais's daughter, to Major William James. In a letter to his old friend, Thomas Armstrong, a fellow artist who is also depicted in this watercolour on the following day, du Maurier recalls 'I had a good study of Mrs Langtry, back, front & both profils [sic] - neither Poynter nor Millais have done her justice.' He was evidently much taken with her appearance and quipped 'Si Madame L. tait Eve, et moi Adam, je n'aurai pas attendre qu'elle m'offre la pomme', (L. Ormond, op. cit. p. 387). It is probable that this watercolour postdates that meeting.
Du Maurier's poem, Two Thrones, inscribed on the backboard, is one of several that he wrote which elevates the 'divine gift' of music, an activity central to his domestic and creative life. Gathered round the piano listening to his elder daughter Beatrice are her husband, Charles Hoyer Millar, whose adoring gaze she meets, and behind him with his white head bent, du Maurier's friend Canon Alfred Ainger, an eccentric canon of Saint Paul's and a fellow resident of Hampstead. Behind him, and directly behind Miss Langtry is Henry James, the distinguished American novelist who was another close friend of the artist, whilst the figure to the extreme right of the watercolour is du Maurier's other son-in-law, Arthur Lewellyn Davies, who with his wife died tragically young. Their five sons were adopted by the author J.M. Barrie, one of them, Peter, inspiring Peter Pan. The other sitters are less easy to identify, but according to the key include Tom Armstrong, a Mr. Bellingham, and a Mr. Mackail, probably J.W. Mackail, the distinguished classical scholar and author of The Life of William Morris, who married Burne-Jones's daughter, Margaret. Armstrong was appointed director of the South Kensington School of Art in 1881, in succession to Sir Edward John Poynter, P.R.A.
Du Maurier executed few watercolours, but after contributing illustrations to the Cornhill Magazine and Once a Week, secured his reputation as the social cartoonist for Punch, in succession to John Leech who died in 1864. Encouraged by Henry James he also wrote three novels, Peter Ibbetson, (1891), Trilby and The Martian (1896). Trilby, which contained thinly disguised portraits of fellow artists from his student days in Paris, became a huge popular success.
We are grateful to Professor Leone Ormond for her help in preparing this catalogue entry.
Du Maurier's poem, Two Thrones, inscribed on the backboard, is one of several that he wrote which elevates the 'divine gift' of music, an activity central to his domestic and creative life. Gathered round the piano listening to his elder daughter Beatrice are her husband, Charles Hoyer Millar, whose adoring gaze she meets, and behind him with his white head bent, du Maurier's friend Canon Alfred Ainger, an eccentric canon of Saint Paul's and a fellow resident of Hampstead. Behind him, and directly behind Miss Langtry is Henry James, the distinguished American novelist who was another close friend of the artist, whilst the figure to the extreme right of the watercolour is du Maurier's other son-in-law, Arthur Lewellyn Davies, who with his wife died tragically young. Their five sons were adopted by the author J.M. Barrie, one of them, Peter, inspiring Peter Pan. The other sitters are less easy to identify, but according to the key include Tom Armstrong, a Mr. Bellingham, and a Mr. Mackail, probably J.W. Mackail, the distinguished classical scholar and author of The Life of William Morris, who married Burne-Jones's daughter, Margaret. Armstrong was appointed director of the South Kensington School of Art in 1881, in succession to Sir Edward John Poynter, P.R.A.
Du Maurier executed few watercolours, but after contributing illustrations to the Cornhill Magazine and Once a Week, secured his reputation as the social cartoonist for Punch, in succession to John Leech who died in 1864. Encouraged by Henry James he also wrote three novels, Peter Ibbetson, (1891), Trilby and The Martian (1896). Trilby, which contained thinly disguised portraits of fellow artists from his student days in Paris, became a huge popular success.
We are grateful to Professor Leone Ormond for her help in preparing this catalogue entry.