Arthur Hacker, R.A. 1858-1919

The sitter and thence by descent to her son George Vernon Meredith Frampton, R.A., his sale London, Sotheby's, 13 November 1985, lot 180;
London, David Messum, by 1987;
Private collection

Kenneth McConkey, Edwardian Portraits - Images of an Age of Opulence, 1987, p. 159, repr. col. p. 158

STRUCTURE The canvas is relined. CATALOGUE COMPARISON The colours are lighter and more subtle than the illustration suggests. PAINT SURFACE The paint surface is in good, clean condition. There are sections of craquelure to the flowers, these are stable. FRAME Held in a plaster, gilt frame in fair condition.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

The sitter for this elegant portrait was Christabel Annie Cockerell (1863-1951), cousin of the architect Sir Sydney Cockerell and wife of Hacker's good friend Sir George Frampton the sculptor, who is perhaps best known for his bronze of Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens. Christabel was also an artist and exhibited landscapes and studies of childhood until around 1910 when she appears to have ceased to exhibit. George and Christabel had met when they were both students at the Royal Academy Schools in 1882 and they were married in 1893, a year before the birth of their only child George Vernon Meredith.

Kenneth McConkey has described this portrait as a '...fine characterisation of the sitter [that] betrays a naturalism which was lacking even in her husband's sculpture, where her features were often translated into the Renaissance idealism of della Robbia. Here Hacker has responded to the sensitive temperament of his subject... Though shown in profile, she seems aware of the spectator's presence. She is wearing a dramatically striped dress with lace trimmings and an overskirt, taking up the vogue for eighteenth century fashions which were undergoing revival.' (Kenneth McConkey, Edwardian Portraits - Images of an Age of Opulence, 1987, p. 159)