EDWIN LONG R.A. (BRITISH, 1829–1891)
EDWIN LONG R.A. (BRITISH, 1829–1891)
EDWIN LONG R.A. (BRITISH, 1829–1891)
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FROM THE ESTATE OF A DISTINGUISHED PRIVATE COLLECTOR
EDWIN LONG R.A. (BRITISH, 1829–1891)

The Daughter of Bethlehem

Details
EDWIN LONG R.A. (BRITISH, 1829–1891)
The Daughter of Bethlehem
signed with monogram and dated '1886' (lower right)
oil on canvas
53 1/8 x 35 3/8in. (135 x 90cm.)
Provenance
Purchased from the artist by Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, 18 December 1886, no 4226.
Purchased from the above by J.E. Walker Esq., 13 May 1887.
Purchased by Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, 30 June 1888.
Purchased from the above by James Williamson M.P., 21 July 1891.
Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 28 November 1930, as A Water-Carrier of Bethlehem.
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 26 November 1986, lot 31, as The Daughter of Bethlemhem.
with Pyms Gallery, London.
Purchased from the above by the parents of the present owners.
Literature
W. Roberts, Memorials of Christie's. A Record of Art Sales from 1766 to 1896. London, 1897, vol II p. 135.
Daily Telegraph, date unknown, 1908.
M. Bills, Edwin Longsden Long RA, London, 1998, p. 155, no. 244, as Bethlehem.
Exhibited
London, Agnews, Daughters of our Empire : a series of pictures by Edwin Long, R.A., being exhibited at Messrs. Thos. Agnew and Sons,1887, no. 16.

Brought to you by

Sarah Reynolds
Sarah Reynolds Specialist, Head of Sale

Lot Essay


This picture was one of a series of twenty commissioned by the London dealers Agnew's to celebrate the Royal Jubilee of Queen Victoria. Various Daughters of Empire were depicted in their national costumes. These included Aden; Bethlehem; India; Wales; Australia; Canada; Cyprus (Ancient: Love's Messenger, and Modern); Egypt; England: the Parson's Daughter, The Violet, The Rose (a portrait of Princess May of Teck, later Queen Mary, wife of King George V), The Primrose, The Little Sister of the Poor; Ireland; Jamaica; Malta; Scotland and Trinidad.
When describing the present lot, Mark Bills notes that it was exhibited in 1887 with the following verse:
Now on these steps worn smooth by countless feet,
Young Arab maids at eve are want to meet,
Their fair heads bearing pitchers, and the hands,
Wreathing the well's dark sides with flowery bands.
(M. Bills, Edwin Longsden Long RA, London, 1998, p. 155)

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