Sir William Russell Flint, R.A., P.R.W.S.

Patricia and Everard Reed, Johannesburg
Sale: Sotheby's, London, 1 December 1999, lot 7
Richard Green, London
Purchased from the above by the present owner

The model for this watercolour was Rachel Fuller (known as Ray, Rae or Blondie), of whom Sir Charles Wheeler P.R.A. wrote in his biography High Relief; '... for a female model both my wife and I depended largely on Rachel Fuller. She came to us as a child of fourteen, very shy slim and lovely and for many years sat for us for sculpture, drawings and paintings. She had a natural aptitude for sitting and could keep a pose for long stretches. Rae sat for many of my works including the Jelico fountain and the gilt bronze Ariel on the Bank of England. I made numerous drawings from her and so did many painters. James Gunn painted arms and hands of many of his portraits, including the state portrait of the Queen, helped by sittings from Rae and Russell Flint and W. E. Webster made her into romantic subject pictures.' Flint often employed Ray when he wanted a blonde model rather than the dark beauty of his principal muse, Cecilia Green. She also appears in The Critical Model and when this was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1962 Flint wrote 'Her comments as far as pictures are concerned are invariably sensible and shrewd.' (exhibition catalogue, Works by Sir William Russell Flint R.A., 1962, p. 30)

The present watercolour depicts Ray in the role of Jeanne Bécu, Comtesse du Barry mistress of Louis XV of France. A chalk drawing Ray Posing as the Du Barry of 1956 was exhibited in Flint's retrospective show at the Royal Academy in 1962.