Studio RT Ltd

Description

We are offering for sale this beautifully executed watercolour of a young woman, by the artist Florence M. J. Gill, who has signed the painting in the lower left hand corner. This is one of a pair of watercolours by this artist, both mounted and framed similarly , although not exactly the same and this painting is smaller than the other. The painting depicts a pretty young Japanese woman, with her hair piled high on her head with flowers on each side, standing under a painted paper sunshade. She is wearing a Japanese floral kimono with the long sleeves lined to match the facings, and darker embroidered underdress to match her obi or sash. She is standing in a garden or park, with cherry blossom in flower on each side of her.

On the back of the painting, the artist has written a rhyme, which is very redolent of the types of entries in autograph books of the early twentieth century, which these days would not be considered politically correct. However, in the interests of authenticity, we are repeating it here, as it would probably be impossible to read if photographed. It is entitled: "Come under my umbrella" and reads:

I'm a sweet little 'Jap',
I've a nice little chap,
P'raps a dozen!
To all I am true,
To a stranger like you,
I'm a cousin!

Florence M. J. Gill was born in 1870 in New Ferry, Cheshire, the daughter of an Irish born H. M. Customs clerk. She appears in the 1871, 1881 and 1891 censuses living with her parents and her brother Arthur and her occupation is listed as Government Art Teacher, so one presumes that she has been at a Government back Art School for training. However, by the 1901 census, she is visiting her newly married brother in Watford and they are both listed as artists. She is not listed in the English and Welsh census for 1911, but she may have been in Scotland, as she exhibited from an address in Milngavie, Glasgow in 1912. Neither her birth, nor her death appear to have been registered and we obtained her birth year from the census records.

She exhibited between 1894 and 1926, 17 at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, 1 at the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour and 2 at the Glasgow Institution. She exhibited from various parts of the UK, including London in 1894, Liverpool in 1898, 1899 and 1902, Watford 1901, Milngavie in 1912 and Newcastle on Tyne in 1920. As we could find no listing for her in the 1939 Register, we presume that she died some time after 1926 and before 1939.

The painting is mounted with washlines and is framed in a 1 1/4" ornate swept gilt frame. It will be supplied wired and ready to hang.

Image size: 17 1/2" x 9 1/2" - 44.45cm x 24.15cm

Frame size: 26 5/8" x 18 3/8" - 67.6cm x 46.65cxm

Medium: Watercolour on paper

Condition: Very good, with no foxing or fading. The mount and frame are in very good condition.