BY JOHN WARRINGTON WOOD, ROME, DATED 1879

John Warrington Wood (1839-1886) was born and studied in England, but spent much of his working life in Rome. Wood began exhibiting at the Royal Academy in 1868 and specialised particularly in Biblical subjects, using them as emotive studies for his ideal of feminine beauty. Here the artist depicts a sentimental and tender picture of loyalty in the figure of Naaman's maid who pleads for her master's recovery from illness.