Portrait of a young girl, seated, with a vase of daisies

This would appear to be an early work by Waterhouse, who was born in Rome, and returned to the land of his birth in 1877, shortly after exhibiting his first picture at the Royal Academy in 1874. There was a strong demand for Italian subjects amongst the British picture buying public at that date, and Waterhouse was no doubt inspired to undertake the visit, following the example of Alma-Tadema, who had spent the winter of 1875-6 in Rome. Italian subjects dominate his submissions to British exhibitions at this date: in the winter of 1878 he submitted A Flower Seller to the Dudley Gallery, no. 341, priced at 90 guineas.

We are grateful to Peter Trippi for his help in preparing this catalogue entry.