JOHN MACALLAN SWAN, R.A., R.W.S. (BRITISH, 1847-1910)
JOHN MACALLAN SWAN, R.A., R.W.S. (BRITISH, 1847-1910)
JOHN MACALLAN SWAN, R.A., R.W.S. (BRITISH, 1847-1910)
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JOHN MACALLAN SWAN, R.A., R.W.S. (BRITISH, 1847-1910)

Portrait of Miss Elfrida Marjorie Eden, later Countess of Warwick (1887- 1943), as a child, full-length standing on a sofa

Details
JOHN MACALLAN SWAN, R.A., R.W.S. (BRITISH, 1847-1910)
Portrait of Miss Elfrida Marjorie Eden, later Countess of Warwick (1887- 1943), as a child, full-length standing on a sofa
signed 'JOHN.M.SWAN.' (lower left)
oil on canvas
54 1/4 x 40 in. (137.8 x 101.6 cm.)
Executed circa 1893.
Provenance
Commissioned directly from the artist by Sir William Eden, 7th Baronet (1849-1915) for £450.
Possibly, with The Goupil Gallery, London, 1893.
Probably, with The Fine Art Society, London, circa 1893.
William Lawson Peacock (†); Christie's, London, 6 February 1925, lot 143 as 'Portrait of Lady Brooke, as a child, in embroidered white frock' (9 gns to Mrs Lewis).
Acquired by The Earl of Avon from Miss Edith Jeffrey, The Cavendish Hotel.
Literature
Sir William Eden to David Croal Thompson, 26 October 1893, GUL E20; GUW 01032, (2022-09-07), The Correspondence of James McNeill Whistler, 1855-1903, edited by Margaret F. MacDonald, Patricia de Montfort and Nigel Thorp; including The Correspondence of Anna McNeill Whistler, 1855-1880, edited by Georgia Toutziari, On-line edition, University of Glasgow, https://www.whistler.arts.gla.ac.uk/correspondence
James Whistler to David Croal Thompson, [27 March 1895], LOC PWC; GUW 08302, (2022-09-07).
Elbert J. Van Wisselingh to James Whistler, 29 March 1895, GUL W1093; GUW 07014, (2022-09-07).
Elbert J. Van Wisselingh to James Whistler, 3 November 1897, GUL W1094; GUW 07015, (2022-09-07).
Special notice
This lot will be removed to Christie’s Park Royal. Christie’s will inform you if the lot has been sent offsite. Our removal and storage of the lot is subject to the terms and conditions of storage which can be found at Christies.com/storage and our fees for storage are set out in the table below - these will apply whether the lot remains with Christie’s or is removed elsewhere. Please call Christie’s Client Service 24 hours in advance to book a collection time at Christie’s Park Royal. All collections from Christie’s Park Royal will be by pre-booked appointment only. Tel: +44 (0)20 7839 9060 Email: cscollectionsuk@christies.com. If the lot remains at Christie’s it will be available for collection on any working day 9.00 am to 5.00 pm. Lots are not available for collection at weekends.

Brought to you by

Benedict Winter
Benedict Winter Associate Director, Specialist

Lot Essay

Born in 1887 and named after her paternal grandmother, Elfrida was the eldest child of Sir William Eden and his wife Sybil. In 1909 she married Leopold Guy Francis Maynard Greville, Lord Brooke, who succeeded his father as 6th Earl of Warwick on 15 January 1924.
Probably painted in the early 1890s, this charming portrait by Macallan Swan shows an engaging young girl wearing a fashionable loose fitting dress, as favoured by advocates of the Aesthetic movement and popularised by Liberty, set in a contemporary interior of rich greens and purples.
However, by October 1893 Sir William was clearly unsatisfied with the likeness and wrote to David Croal Thompson of The Goupil Gallery to ask him to help dispose of it. Further correspondence between Elbert Jan Van Wisselingh and Whistler in 1895 (by which point the latter was already embroiled in his dispute with Eden over the portrait of Lady Eden - see lot 142 for further details) reveals that the Dutch dealer Van Wisselingh had been shown the picture by Ernest Brown of the Fine Art Society around two years previously when Sir William was looking for a buyer for the portrait. Sadly the remaining correspondence doesn't reveal if the Fine Art Society managed to find the eventual purchaser of the work. However, it was clearly sold at some stage to William Lawson Peacock as the picture appeared in the sale of his estate in these Rooms in 1925.

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