George Spencer Watson, R.A. (1869-1934)

Little seen in the auction rooms in recent years, George Spencer Watson's Edwardian society portraits recall Sargent in their brilliant, confident brushwork. Spencer Watson won the silver medal for drawing and the Landseer scholarship at the RA Schools, and exhibited 132 works at the Royal Academy throughout his career. Although he preferred to paint subject pictures, his evident facility as a portraitist led to a steady stream of commissions. Until the First World War, he also exhibited at the Paris Salon. The present picture was shown there in 1911.