Lot 66: Alfred Elmore, R.A. , 1815-1881 the smile: from thomas moore's irish melodies oil on panel, oval

signed on reverse: Elmore oil on panel, oval

measurements note 30 by 25 cm.; 11 ¾ by 9 ¾ in.

ENGRAVED:
Edward Francis Finden, undated (mid 19th century)

Sotheby's, date not known, where bought by Sir David Scott as part of a lot with William Edward Frost's Terpsichore (lot 49 of this sale)

'Then remember, wherever your goblet is crown'd,
Through this world whether eastward or westward you roam,
When a cup to the smile of dear woman goes round,
Oh! remember the smile which adorns her at home.'
We may roam though this world, from Irish Melodies by Thomas Moore Alfred Elmore was born at Clonakilty in County Cork, the son of an army surgeon. In 1833 he entered the Royal Academy schools in London, and the following year he exhibited for the first time at the Academy. Many of his early subjects were religious, and painted in a style that reflected his knowledge of paintings by the old masters which he studied in the course of successive visits to France, German and Italy. He lived for a while in Munich, and remained in Rome for as long as two years in the early 1840s. In later years he turned principally to historical and literary subjects, which were on frequent occasions engraved.

Elmore was encountered by Frederic Leighton in 1851, on the occasion of Leighton's visiting London. The young artist was impressed by Elmore's art, which he understood as owing much to Continental example, and which seemed to him to indicate that English art was moving towards a more serious and high minded purpose.

The more informal paintings that Elmore undertook, such as the present, intended perhaps as 'fancy subjects', are analogous to the figurative subjects without ostensible narrative that Leighton undertook from the late 1850s onwards. It may be that Elmore was in turn influenced by Leighton; the dark haired model in the present painting bears a marked resemblance to the model Nanna Risi, the mistress of Anselm Feuerbach, whom Leighton represented in a series of works in 1859. The present painting appears not to have been exhibited and was perhaps made expressly to provide the basis for Finden's engraving.