Lot 157: Mary Ethel Young Hunter , 1878-1936 once upon a time oil on canvas

signed and dated l.r.: M Y Hunter 1909 oil on canvas

measurements note 76 by 91.5 cm., 28 by 36 in.

London, Pyms Gallery, Edwardian Pre-Raphaelites, The Art of John and Mary Young Hunter, June 2000, no. 44

Royal Academy Pictures, 1909, illustrated p. 44;
Pictures of the Year, special edition of Pall Mall Magazine, 1909, illustrated p. 53

By descent through the artist's family

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION
This delightful scene of a pretty young woman reading a children's story to her young companion, was painted at Gifford's Hall at Wickhambrook in Suffolk. Gifford's Hall was a Tudor country house that the Hunter's rented as a retreat from London from 1903 to 1909. The setting is in the small sitting room (the room was reputedly haunted) and the younger of the girls was based upon the artist's daughter Gabrielle, lit by sunlight through the garden window.