ATTRIBUTED TO GEORGE FRANCIS MILES 1852-1891 | PORTRAIT OF A LADY, POSSIBLY LILLIE LANGTRY

This beautiful portrait bears a signature in the lower right corner which appears to have been painted over part of the original signature which can be read under ultraviolet light as ‘Frank’. It is highly likely therefore that the picture is by the talented artist Frank Miles who is best-known for being one of the first artists to discover and celebrate the beautiful ‘Jersey Lily’ Lillie Langtry. Prints of his portraits of Mrs Langtry spread the fame of her beauty and made her one of the first celebrity beauties – a woman so beautiful that people stood on chairs to get a better look at her at the theatre and who caught the enthusiastic eye of artists from Lord Leighton, Edward Poynter and George Frederic Watts and the appreciative attention of the future King. It is tempting to speculate that this may be a portrait of Lily as it is very similar to a portrait of her painted in 1884.