GEORGE SPENCER WATSON ROI, RP, ARA, RA (1869-1934) 'My Lady ...

Hammer

£20,000

GEORGE SPENCER WATSON ROI, RP, ARA, RA (1869-1934) 'My Lady of the Rose,' a portrait of Hilda Spencer Watson, seated three quarter length, wearing a red tunic dress and fur stole, holding a fur muff, and wearing a gold braid belt, signed with initials, oil on canvas, 43 1/2 x 33 1/2 in. Exhibited: The Royal Academy, 1911 no.368 Bermondsey Settlement Picture Exhibition, 1913.

Provenance: William Harold Gardiner, ;
Joan Gardiner (in Australia);
Robin Tassell, of Dovehouse
Stanwick, Northants;
Richard Thompson & Mary
Spencer Watson;
Thence by descent.

The symbolic title for the portrait 'My Lady of the Rose' reflects the artist's deep reverence for Hilda. The symbolism of the Rose as a symbol of love but also of new beginnings, an appropriate theme for the portrait painted in 1909, to celebrate his marriage to the sitter. The figures in the background perhaps reflect both the sitter and artist's interest in mythology and the arts. A winged figure fires an arrow which strikes another figure on whose belt the artist has signed his initials. In this intensely personal portrait, a subtle representation perhaps of the artist love-struck for his wife.

Hilda's father William Gardiner was a leading businessman who had established a successful trading business between London and Sydney. His daughter, Hilda, was, according to a contemporary within her circle, 'a charismatic person, tall, intense and nerveuse ... in every memory of her Hilda stands out as striking, and eventful'. Known affectionately as 'Ginger', Hilda was a classical violinist trained in Europe. As a dancer and mime artist, Hilda was heavily influenced by the free form Greek style of Loie Fuller and Isadora Duncan. Her passion for dancing continued until the end of her life. She regularly organised and took part in performances both in London and later in the theatre that she built at Dunshay Manor, the Spencer Watsons's home on the Isle of Purbeck.

'My Lady of the Rose' can be compared with another by the artist of the same sitter (bequeathed in 2007 to The Tate Gallery by the artist's daughter Mary Spencer Watson) titled 'Hilda and Maggie', painted in 1911. For another portrait of her cf. Christies, 15 Dec 2010. Lot 144 'Hilda in a Black Hat'.