Florence Claxton

Sale: Sotheby's, London, 23 November 1982, lot 57

Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

John Bull, 23 March 1861, p. 187

London City Press, 22 June 1861, p. 6

Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser, 18 March 1874, p. 8

Frances Bonner, Lizbeth Goodman, Richard Allen, Linda Janes and Catherine King (eds.), Imagining Women: Cultural Representations and Gender, Cambridge, 1992, pp. 173-175

Antony H. Harrison and Beverly Taylor (eds.), Gender and Discourse in Victorian Literature and Art, Illinois, 1992, pp. 226-230, illustrated

Susan P. Casteras and Linda H. Peterson, A Struggle for Fame: Victorian Women Artists and Authors, New Haven, 1994, pp. 29-30

Jan Marsh and Pamela Gerrish Nunn, Pre-Raphaelite Women Artists, Manchester City Art Galleries, 1997, p. 10

Deborah Cherry, Beyond the Frame, Feminism and Visual Culture, Britain 1850-1900, London and New York, 2012, pp. 37-47, illustrated

Kyriaki Hadjiafxendi and Patricia Zakreski (eds.), Crafting the Woman Professional in the Long Nineteenth Century, Artistry and Industry in Britain, London and New York, 2016, pp. 115-117

Charlotte Yeldham, The British Art Journal, vol. 20, no. 3, 2019/2020, pp. 88-97

London, National Institution of Fine Arts, 1861, no. 316 (with the description: ‘The four ages of man are represented: in the centre youth, middle age, and old age reposing on an ottoman, infancy being in the background; all are equally the objects of devotion from surrounding females. The ‘sugar plums’ dropping from the bonbon box, represent the ‘airy nothings’ alone supposed to be within the mental grasp of womankind. A wide breach has been made in the ancient wall of Custom and Prejudice by Progress – Emigration - who points out across the ocean. Three governesses in the foreground, ignorant apparently of the opening behind them, are quarrelling over one child. Upright female figure to the right is persuaded by Divinity, and commanded by law, to confine her attention to legitimate objects. Another female has sunk exhausted against a door, of which the medical profession holds the key; its representative is amused at her impotent attempts; he does not see that the wood is rotten and decayed in many places. An artist (Rosa B--) has attained the top of the wall (upon which the rank weeds of Misrepresentation and prickly thorns of Ridicule flourish), others are following. The blossom of the ‘forbidden fruit; appears in the distance.’

Liverpool, The Liverpool Academy, 1862, no. 295 (with the above description)