Preparing for the Ball

Details

Emma Sandys (1843-1877)
Preparing for the Ball
signed with monogram and dated '1867' (upper right)
oil on canvas
24¼ x 17¼ in. (61.6 x 43.8 cm.)

Provenance

with Rowley's Fine Art Dealers, Manchester.

Exhibited

Norwich, Norwich and Eastern Counties Working Classes Industrial Exhibition, 1867.
Manchester, Pre-Raphaelite Women Artists, 1997-8, no. 29.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis

Lot Essay

Although Emma Sandys' earliest known work dates from 1863, it was with this picture that she made her exhibition debut, in her native city of Norwich, in 1867. The picture has been known by a variety of titles, including The Lady of Shalott, and betrays the influence of Sandys' better known brother, Frederick, who was her senior by fourteen years. Sandys' supported herself by executing portraits, mainly in chalk, of the local gentry (see lots 132, 134 and 135 in Christie's sale of British Art on Paper, 5 June 2003). While she also painted half-lengths of mythological beauties, in her brother's mode, the present picture is her only known full length.

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