Details
A fan, the silk leaf painted by Charles Conder for Amaryllis Hacon with eight miniature portraits of ladies and a child and R.H. for Ryllis Hacon, also inscribed C.Conder '95-'96.'98 Chelsea-Dornuch-Dieppe for Mas.Ryllis, the verso with inscription 'A Book of Verse underneath the Bough A Loaf of Bread A Jug of Wine and Thou Beside Me Singing in the Wilderness AH! wilderness were paradise end' and with monogram R.H. and Rhyllis, the mother of pearl sticks pierced and gilt - 11in. (28cm.), 1895-1898
Provenance
Given by Amaryllis Hacon, later Mrs. Robichaud to the vendor's mother in law in about 1936. Mr. and Mrs. Llewellyn Hacon had a flat at 38 rue Aguado in Dieppe where Conder stayed in 1898. Hacon an easy-going, genial man of the world and a generous friend to artists, was married to Amaryllis, a beautiful girl with whose portrait by Rothenstein he had first fallen in love. This portrait he had purchased, together with one of Conder, also painted by Rothenstein, six years previously in Paris. Hacon was obviously a man for whom a portrait was of documentary as well as aesthetic importance, for he not only married Amaryllis, but sought an introduction to Conder, whom he befriended. The Hacons owned a house at Dornoch, where in 1896 they had invited Conder to spend July and August, and where he did several paintings of the romantic Sutherlandshire coast. It was during his visit to Dornoch that he painted his first fan to be reproduced. Frank Harris asked Rothenstein to edit a Christmas supplement of the Saturday Review. ... 'I am having more difficulty than I expected as I find it difficult to keep the fan simple and at the same time give it delicacy. I abandoned the one that I was doing in sanguine and green and now I am doing one in blue and black and I think that it will suit me better. ...In the fan I am doing for you I have used three or four shades of the same colour and hope thats all right. I wish a fan I did before getting your letter would have suited as it is certainly one of my best, but it is painted in so many colours, and I fear depends on its colour for the effect'. Soon after the Hacons' marriage they took over the lease of a fine house in The Vale, Chelsea from Charles Ricketts and set aside a room for Conder in 1896 and 1897. The Life and Death of Conder.
Special notice
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.
Further details
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