Lot 33: Portrait of a young lady, bust-length

Emma Sandys (1834-1877) Portrait of a young lady, bust-length signed with monogram and dated '1873' (upper left) pencil and coloured chalks, heightened with bodycolour on buff paper 17 ¾ x 13 7/8 in. (45.2x 35.3 cm.)

45.2x 35.3 cm.

Manchester, Manchester City Art Galleries, Pre-Raphaelite Women Artists, 1997-8, no. 33.

Pre-Raphaelite Women Artists, exh. cat. Manchester City Art Galleries, p. 122, illustrated p. 84.

with Peter Nahum, London. Anonymous sale; Sothebys, London, 25 January 1988, lot 439 (unsold). Anonymous sale; Sothebys, London, 3 March 1993, lot 35. with Ealing Gallery, London. Anonymous sale; Christie's, South Kensington, 23 March 2005, lot 119. with Campbell Wilson, Hove, where purchased by the present owners.

Emma Sandys was the younger sister of Augustus Frederick Sandys (lots 18 and 20) and she often sat for her brother. Pamela Gerrish-Nunn, in her catalogue to the Manchester exhibition, suggests that this was a commissioned portrait. The screen at the sitter's right shoulder reveals the contemporary craze for Japonisme, in keeping with the sitter's role as a patron of taste.