Mary Ethel Young Hunter

By descent through the artist's family

London, Pyms Gallery, Edwardian Pre-Raphaelites, The Art of John and Mary Young Hunter, June 2000, no. 44

Royal Academy Pictures, 1909, illustrated p. 44;
Pictures of the Year, special edition of Pall Mall Magazine, 1909, illustrated p. 53

STRUCTURE This picture is painted on canvas laid on panel. The panel is sound and flat and the painting is in good condition. The colours are strong but the picture may benefit from a light clean. There are areas of fine craquelure, particularly in the dark shadows behind the older figure. However this is only visible upon close inspection. UNDER ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT There are flecked retouchings on the older girl's face and neck and to the younger girl's skirt but these are very minor. There are also small areas of retouching to the sofa and to the background but these are also not excessive and appears to have been made to infill craquelure. FRAME This picture is contained in a plaster moulded frame in good condition.
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This delightful scene of a pretty young woman reading a children's story to her young companion, was painted at Gifford's Hall at Wickhambrook in Suffolk. Gifford's Hall was a Tudor country house that the Hunter's rented as a retreat from London from 1903 to 1909. The setting is in the small sitting room (the room was reputedly haunted) and the younger of the girls was based upon the artist's daughter Gabrielle, lit by sunlight through the garden window.