Charles Edward Conder (1868-1909)

Rothenstein described Conder's work during the late spring of 1893 as, 'the best he ever did'. He singles out Orchard on the Seine and two other pictures painted during these idyllic months in and around Vétheuil which he says give, 'a very personal interpretation of the mood of late Spring, fresh and gentle yet full of the promise of the radiant splendour of Summer'. Of these two other pictures, Springtime is now in the Tate Gallery, London and Blossom at Dennemont is in the Ashmolean, Oxford.

Arthur Blunt was a son of the vicar of Chelsea, and was a painter whose own style owed much to Conder, and to his wife. Mrs Blunt first met Conder in 1893 when her husband took her to Conder's studio in Paris. He was then at work on The Meeting of Dante and Beatrice.

In 1894, Conder travelled with the Blunts and the American Kinsella sisters to Vétheuil for the summer (see J. Rothenstein, op. cit., pp. 82-3).