Children watching a foal, in a farmyard

Helena Maguire was the daughter of Thomas Herbert Maguire, lithographer to Queen Victoria, and a painter of portraits in vitrified enamel. Her siblings Bertha and Sidney were also painters. Helena found her preferred subjects amongst children and animals, and this is an unusually fine example of her work. She exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1881 and 1902, as well as at the Royal Society of British Artists, and at the New Watercolour Society.