Lot 90: Mrs Janet A. Boyd (British, active 1895-1906) Ralph Eustace Smith (1890-1918), wearing white sailor's chemise with blue collar, matching white under-shirt with blue borders to the neckline, black scarf tied with white ribbon at his chest, blue

Ralph Eustace Smith (1890-1918), wearing white sailor's chemise with blue collar, matching white under-shirt with blue borders to the neckline, black scarf tied with white ribbon at his chest, blue trousers, blond curly hair.
Signed on the obverse with monogram and dated JAB./ 1895, gold frame, the border engraved Ralph Eustace Smith/ October 1894. Aged 5., the reverse glazed to reveal blue silk.
Oval, 68mm (2 11/16in) high

Ralph was the younger of two sons of Eustace Smith and his wife Ellen Gertrude (née Hawkes) who married in around 1888. Eustace Senior was the son of Thomas Eustace Smith, JP, barrister and wealthy managing director of Smith's Dock on Tyneside. This company eventually became the Swan Hunter shipyard. The family had a home in London and Gosforth House, Gosforth, Tyneside.

Ralph's elder brother, Philip, joined the army at the outbreak of World War I; Ralph enlisted the following year and became a pilot in the Royal Flying Corps, the precursor to the R.A.F. Shortly before enlisting, he married Florence Muriel Joicey, the daughter of wealthy land owners in Northumberland. Ralph was killed in action in 1918.

Janet Boyd exhibited a companion portrait to the present lot of Ralph's brother Philip at the Royal Academy in 1896.