Lot 423
HRH PRINCESS LOUISE (BRITISH 1848-1939)
MAIDENHOOD
The Forbes Collection at Old Battersea House
Auction: 1 November 2011 at 11:00 GMT
Description
Pencil, watercolour and bodycolour
Dimensions
66cm x 40.5cm (26in x 16in)
Footnote
Note:
The present work was painted by Princess Louise for her mother, Queen Victoria, in honour of her birthday, May 24th, 1869. It was inspired by the following lines of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem 'Maidenhood' which was included in his Ballads and Other Poems. "Standing with Reluctant Feet/Where the Brook and River Meet/Womanhood and Childhood Fleet!"
Provenance:
HM Queen Victoria, to whom given on 24th May 1869, her 50th birthday.
Anon. sale: Sotheby's, London, May 31, 2001, Lot 300, reproduced.
Literature:
Catalogue of Paintings, Sculpture and Other Works of Art at Osborne House, 1876, p. 285.