The present lot, a detailed and meticulously rendered 19th century copy of one of Grant's masterpieces, depicts the artist's second daughter, Anne Emily Sophia, who was always known as 'Daisy'. The original portrait was listed under 1857 in the artist's sitters book, and was no doubt painted to mark Daisy's marriage on 15 April that year to William Thomas Markham of Becca Hall, Yorkshire. Since the composition shows her standing in a snowy landscape, heavily caped and wearing a red flannel petticoat against the cold, we can assume that the original was executed in the previous January or February. In anticipation of her marriage, Daisy was identified as 'Miss Grant (Mrs Markham)' in her father's sitters book, but the catalogue gave her married name when the portrait appeared at the Royal Academy that summer, where it was warmly received by critics.
Although little is known about Thomas Youngman Gooderson, he was clearly a talented artist and appears to have made his name as a copyist of Sir Francis Grant's works - there are several other paintings by him after Grant's portraits in public collections. Interestingly, the picture originally hung on the walls of Kilgraston, the mansion house built by Sir Francis Grant's father Francis Grant, J.P., D.L. and inherited by Grant's elder brother John. The house remained in private hands until it was requisitioned during the First World War and used as a hospital, before being purchased in 1930 by the Society of the Sacred Heart and opened as a school with 40 boarders. To this day, the building remains an independent boarding and day school for girls.