Portrait of a Beauty

Although Wontner mainly exhiibted formal portraits of establishment figures, his posthumous reputation largely rests on a series of classical beauties, of which the present picture is a fine example. The format of a single female figure, half-length, against a marble background was popularized by John William Godward (1861-1922) (see lots 140, 141) who himself continued a long tradition, as exemplified by Frederick, Lord Leighton and Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, of painting the classical ideal.