Lot 26: WILLIAM JOHN HENNESSY 1839-1917

FLOWERS OF MAY

79 by 125cm.; 31¼ by 49½in.

signed and dated l.l.: W hENNESSY 1885; signed and titled on the stretcher

oil on canvas

EXHIBITED

London, Grosvenor Gallery, details untraced.

NOTE

In contrast to the focus on rustic peasant life in Twixt Day and Night (lot 25), during the late 1870s and 1880s, Hennessy painted a series of works depicting elegantly dressed women in the French countryside. His wife and family may very well have posed as the models and Flowers of May is a key work from this series where two girls are surrounded by fragrant buttercups and blossoming apple trees. Other works from the series included paintings with similarly light-hearted titles such as A Spring Fantasy (1880), A Visit to the Peacock (1880) and With the Birds (1883).