Lot 72: Florence A. Ross (1870-1949) ANNAMOE, COUNTY

Florence A. Ross (1870-1949) ANNAMOE, COUNTY WICKLOW inscribed in another hand on reverse pastel 36 by 48cm., 14 by 19in. Florence Ross was raised in her grandmother's house in Orwell Park, Rathgar, next door to her cousin, John Millington Synge, who was her closest childhood friend. The Synge family later moved to Greystones and after the death of her mother, in 1891, Ross went to live with them in Wicklow. During the 1890s she would holiday with them at Castle Kevin, Annamoe, and after travelling abroad for some ten years she frequently returned to the same area. In 1907 she and Mrs Synge stayed at Tomriland House, the Annamoe farmhouse where Synge would write The Shadow of the Glen. Synge's sister Elizabeth would sometimes accompany Ross on sketching trips in the area. A regular exhibitor at the WCSI, Ross showed a number of Wicklow landscapes including Annamoe Bridge (1932). The present work may be identified as one that Ross exhibited in 1940, titled The Enchanted Garden.