Elizabeth A.Stanhope Forbes

LOT 68 ELIZABETH ADELA STANHOPE FORBES THE ORCHARD, oil on panel, signed with monogram 12.5" x 10.7"; 31.3 cm x 26.9 cm Auction Estimate: $8000 / $10000 Provenance: Sale Victorian and Edwardian Art, Sotheby’’’’s London, July 15, 2009, lot 67. Masters Gallery Ltd., Calgary. Private Collection, Vancouver. Literature: Judith Cook and Melissa Hardie, Singing from the Walls, The Life and Art of Elizabeth Forbes, Bristol, 2000. Elizabeth Forbes was born in Ottawa in 1859, the daughter of William Armstrong, an official with the Government of Canada. She travelled to England in the 1870s to study at the South Kensington art schools. In 1878 she returned to Canada to continue her studies at the Art Students League in Toronto. In 1885 she moved to Cornwall where she met her future husband, the artist Stanhope Forbes, whom she married in 1889. Her work was influenced by Whistler and she is particularly known for her paintings of children. Her works rarely appear on the art market.

LOT 71 PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF THE LATE CHARLES AND MARY DUGANCHAPMAN ELIZABETH ADELA STANHOPE FORBES 1859 - 1912 FETCHING WATER signed l.l.: E FORBES watercolour with gouache and black chalk 5,000—7,000 GBP 44 by 31cm., 17 by 13in. signed l.l.: E FORBES watercolour with gouache and black chalk Judith Cook, Melissa Hardie and Christiana Payne, Singing forthe Walls - The Art and Life of Elizabeth Forbes, 2000. illustratedp. 106

Elizabeth Adela Stanhope Forbes (1859-1912) Chateau at Lac d'Annecy signed with monogram (lower left) watercolour and bodycolour on linen laid on card 13¾ x 9½ in. (35 x 24 cm.) Provenance Mary Rheam. Lot Notes The present work is one of a number of views at Lac d'Annecy,south-east France from a portfolio which once belonged to MaryRheam. Henry Meynell Rheam, R.A. was a friend of the Forbes' fromNewlyn.

Elizabeth Adela Stanhope Forbes, A.R.W.S. (Canadian, 1859-1912) The Ford signed 'EAFORBES' (lower left) oil on canvas 107 x 82 cm. (42 1/8 x 32 5/16 in.) Footnote: PROVENANCE: Sale, Sotheby's London, 22 July 1973, lot 168 Sale, Christie's London, 13 May 1977, lot 50 Sale, Phillips London, 5 March 1987, lot 18 Private Collection, U.K. EXHIBITED: London, Royal Academy, 1908, cat. no. 374 Penzance, Penlee House Gallery & Museum, Focus exhibition , 1997-98 Penzance, Penlee House Gallery & Museum, Singing from the Walls: The life and art of Elizabeth Forbes , July-September 2000, then touring to Djanogly Art Gallery, Nottingham, October-December 2000. Penzance, Penlee House Gallery & Museum, Wild Cornwall , March-June 2009 LITERATURE: Royal Academy Illustrated, p. 64 (b&w.ill) Judith Cook and Melissa Hardie, Singing from the walls: the life and art of Elizabeth Forbes , (Clifton, 2000), p. 181, cat 4.91 (col.ill.p.138). Elizabeth Forbes had a natural understanding of the affection that existed between mother and child and described it with great warmth in both her paintings and in her writings. In the early 1900s she held two exhibitions devoted to paintings of children (Fine Art Society, 1900 and Leicester Galleries, 1904) and as a result appeared in a variety of publications. One in particular commented However difficult it may be to diagnose the charm of a particular talent, it is obvious that a passionate love of outdoor life and a tender regard for children are the mainsprings of Mrs Stanhope Forbes's powers.' This genuine maternal affection and natural domesticity led Elizabeth Forbes to a contented life during the first decade of the 20th century, tending to the needs of her family and home as well as the students who attended their School of Painting, which opened in 1899, while pursuing her own career as an artist. It was commonly acknowledged that Elizabeth imbued her paintings with a femininity and sensitivity for the people and landscapes that she chose to depict. In the second of the formentioned exhibitions, she comments with affection 'Dear little people! To the painter who goes back year by year to the same hunting grounds, the memory of them becomes glorified and tender...And one marks the flights of the years with their changing. The yellow-haired baby of one summer in the sturdy brown-legged urchin of the next. Still a little longer, and the tiny schoolgirl with pinafore and satchel is found again in the slim young matron, mothering a yellow-haired baby in her turn'. The present lot was completed and exhibited at the end of this golden period of Elizabeth's life, a period of bountiful health and unalloyed contentment with the various facets of life she pursued in Newlyn. The exceptional light and economy of line show her technical ability at its best, however the delight of this painting is surely the tranquil trickle of the stream and the careful footsteps of the dutiful mother as her child gazes playfully into the trees.

25.5 by 35.5 cm., 10 by 14 in. DESCRIPTION indistinctly signed with monogram and dated 1903 l.r. oil on panel PROVENANCE Given as a gift to Jill and Geoffrey Garnier by the artist andthence by descent CATALOGUE NOTE Penzer House was a boarding house at Paul in Penzance which wasaffectionately known by its residents as 'Beer House' after theproprietor Mrs Beer. Laura and Harold Knight boarded there whenthey first moved to Newlyn and were soon joined by the flamboyantfigure of Alfred Munnings. Laura Knight described Mrs Beer as ; 'asmall, round person with greying hair screwed back from her facewith a tiny bun I can only describe Mrs. Beer by telling that shewas as-unlike-anybody-else-a-person-as-you-could-hope-to-meet-ina-lifetime. She was delightful but crazyfying! To attain indulgencein her cleanliness and comfort of her beds, to be allowed to tasteher food - 'French cooking, me dears'- and to be given theprivilege of wiping your feet on one of the many front-door matsbestrewing her hallway, conferred a peculiar cachet to her lodgers.She wasn't going to have any sort of person coming across herdoorstep.' (Laura Knight, The Magic of Line, 1965, p. 137) BeerHouse became the centre for much social activity in Newlyn for atime and a band was even organised with; 'penny whistle, hair comb,drums of any old canvas, and song. There was only a thin wallbetween our sitting room and Mrs. Beer's bedroom, but she alwayswent to bed early. We need never have worried about disturbing her,for after some months of this practice, she assured us: 'I lovemusic, me dears!' (ibid Knight, p. 138). The cottage appears in the background of several of Elizabeth'swatercolours, including Midday Rest which depicts the same view asshown in the present painting.