Margaret Sarah Carpenter

Anonymous sale ('The Property of a Gentleman of Chelsea'), London, Sloane Street Auctions, 27 April 2023, lot 104, for £3,000;

Where acquired by the present owner.

Traditionally thought to depict the Pearson children, it is recorded that Carpenter exhibited a portrait of Alfert Harford, son of the Rev. C. B. Pearson (no. 1094) at the Royal Academy in 1846.¹ The sitter in that painting is most likely to be Albert Harford Pearson, who was born in 1840 and died in 1888 and it seems likely that Carpenter may have painted other members of the family.

Born Margaret Geddes in Salisbury, the artist was the daughter of an army officer of Scottish descent, who leased a cottage on the Estate of Lord Radnor. Her talents as a self-taught artist, supplemented by lessons from Thomas Guest of Salisbury, attracted the attention of Radnor who allowed her to copy paintings in his collection at Longford Castle.¹ She was eventually introduced to Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769–1830) during her late teens and established herself as a professional artist in London by 1813. She exhibited no fewer than 243 pictures during her lifetime and frequently submitted works to the Royal Academy from 1818 to 1866.

¹ A. Graves, The Royal Academy of Arts, A complete dictionary of contributors and their work from its foundation in 1769 to 1904, 8 vols, London 1905, vol. 1, p. 100, no. 1094.

² For the most substantial biography of the artist to date see R.J. Smith, Margaret Sarah Carpenter (1793–1872), A brief biography, Salisbury 1993.