SIR WILLIAM BLAKE RICHMOND, R.A. | Portrait of Edith Liddell

Ralph Holland, his sale, London, Sotheby's, 5 July 2013, lot 372 where purchased by Stan Battat

Edith Liddell (1854-1874) was the daughter of Henry Liddell, Dean of Christ Church, Oxford and younger sister of Alice Liddell, immortalised by Lewis Carroll (Charles Ludwig Dodgson). Edith and her older sisters Lorina and Alice were told the story of Alice in Wonderland during a boat trip on 4 July 1862 when they pick-nicked at Godstow and Alice asked Dodgson to tell them a story. It has been suggested that Edith, and not Alice, was the model for Dodgson's illustrations to the original manuscript version of the story given to Alice in 1864. In 1864 Richmond painted a beautiful group portrait of Edith, Alice and Lorina (private collection) at their country house Penforfa near Llandudno - the present sketch was made as a study for the portrait. Richmond wrote of the girls' forbearance during the sittings; 'I was a most strict taskmaster, often beginning work before seven in the morning, but never a complaint fell from them during the long hours of sitting, for it was my custom to work eight and ten hours a day, and never to do a touch without the victim in front of me'. Prince Leopold, youngest son of Queen Victoria was in love with Edith during his time at Christ Church. Tragically she died when she was only twenty-two on 26 June 1874 shortly before she was to be married to the cricketer Aubrey Harcourt; Prince Leopold was a pall-bearer at her funeral.