William Powell Frith, R.A. (1819-1909)

Isabelle Frith reading

Details

William Powell Frith, R.A. (1819-1909)
Isabelle Frith reading
signed and dated 'W.P. FRITH 1845' (lower left) and with inscription 'Portrait sketch of my Mother,/Isabelle Frith, née Baker;/Probably painted in 1850/by W.P. Frith R.A./Walter Frith./13 Harley Gardens./S.W.10/July ix:1933' (in the hand of the artist's son, on a label attached to the reverse) and with a further inscription 'Sketch by Frith R.A.' (on a fragmentary label attached to the stretcher)
oil on panel
11 x 13 ½ in. (28 x 34.3 cm.)

Provenance

By descent in the family of the artist until
Sir Philip Panton (†); Christie's, London, 20 April 1951, lot 6 (26 gns to Arcade Gallery).
Peter Ward-Jackson, and by descent to the present owner.

Exhibited

York, Fine Art and Industrial Exhibition, 1866, catalogue unnumbered.

Sale room notice

Please note that this painting is being sold from the collection of the Late Peter Ward-Jackson, curator at the Victorian & Albert Museum, London, between 1948 and 1976.
The provenance should read as follows and not as stated in the catalogue entry:
By descent in the family of the artist until
Sir Philip Panton (†); Christie's, London, 20 April 1951, lot 6 (26 gns to Arcade Gallery).
Peter Ward-Jackson, and by descent to the present owner.

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Lot Essay

Frith and Isabelle Baker (1822-80) were married in York on 26 June 1845, the year this work was executed. This suggests that it may have been painted while the couple were on their honeymoon in the Derbyshire Dales. Their first address was in Charlotte Street, London, but in 1847 as the family grew, they moved into their first wholly-owned house, 13 Park Village West in Regent's Park. Another portrait of Isabelle Frith was sold in these Rooms from the collection of Christopher Wood on 28 February 2007, lot 56.

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