Description
signed and dated 1898, watercolour and gouache on vellum
Dimensions
46 x 20.5cm (18 x 8in)
Footnote
Provenance:
Charles Macdonald Esq., the artist's brother
By descent to his daughter, Mrs. L. A. Dunderdale
The Fine Art Society, London
Gordon House
Christies, 14th June 2005, Lot 218.
Exhibited:
Glasgow, Hunterian Art Gallery and Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery 'Doves and Dreams: The Art of Frances Macdonald and J. Herbert MacNair', 12th August 2006 - 22nd April 2007, exhib. ref. W12
Literature:
Robertson, Pamela (Edit.) 'Doves and Dreams: The Art of Frances Macdonald and J. Herbert MacNair', Hampshire 2006, p. 151, exhib. ref. W12, cat. ill. 69
Note:
Another fine work from 1898, this time on a theme which was to become familiar in the work of the sisters. Children and roses or rose bushes featured regularly in the work of Frances Macdonald, and her future husband Herbert MacNair, from the mid-1890s. This symbolism is multi-layered and open to much speculation over its meaning. By no means all of it celebrates human fecundity and romantic love and, particularly in Frances's paintings, the debate over the effect of children on a woman's creative output seems never far beneath the surface.