An Elegant Beauty

Although he mainly exhibited formal portraits of establishment figures, Wontner's posthumous reputation largely rests with a series of classical beauties, of which the present picture is a particularly fine example. The format of a single female figure, half length, against a marble background was popularised by John William Godward (1861-1922), who himself continued a long tradition, as exemplified by Leighton and Alma-Tadema, of painting the classical ideal.