European & British Art
European & British Art
Property from Greystoke Castle, Cumbria
Portrait of Catherine Muriel Cowell Stepney
This lot has been withdrawn
Lot Details
Description
Property from Greystoke Castle, Cumbria
Sir John Everett Millais, P.R.A.
British
1829 - 1896
Portrait of Catherine Muriel Cowell Stepney
signed with monogram and dated 1880 lower left
oil on canvas
Unframed: 124.5 by 77.5cm., 49 by 30½in.
Framed: 143 by 96cm., 56¼ by 37¾in.
The present portrait was referred to in Academy Notes in 1880; 'The pictures on the next wall are some of the best in the Academy; the first is the portrait of a child in black velvet.' (p. 28) By this period in his career Millais was famous for his portraiture, particularly of children with which he had a particular sensitivity and understanding. As Malcolm Warner has pointed out 'He found child portraits an especially sympathetic vehicle for his ideas about art - first about truth, then about beauty - and in them offered a view of childhood that was representative of the age in which he lived.' (Peter Funnell, Malcolm Warner, Kate Flint, H.C.G. Matthew, Leonée Ormond, Millais: Portraits, 1999, p. 105) Perhaps the most famous examples of this genre by Millais are Cherry Ripe (sold in these rooms, 1 July 2004, lot 21) painted a year before the present portrait and Bubbles painted six years later.
The sitter was the four-year old daughter of Sir Arthur Cowell-Stepney, 2nd Bt., Catherine Muriel Cowell Stepney (1876-1952). The portrait is recalled in Millais' son's account of his father's work where he uses her nickname 'Alcyone', the name of a character from mythology who was turned into the brilliantly-plumed kingfisher; 'The little child Alcyone was a difficult little bird to catch. She could only be taken on the wing, for, when perched on the dais, she was so frightened that there was nothing for it but to take her down again, give her some flowers to play with, and let her run about the studio at her own sweet will. Whatever details were wanted had to be got by catching her up now and then, and holding her for a few minutes at a time; and in this way a likeness was secured.' (J.G. Millais, The Life and Letters of Sir John Everett Millais, 1899, two volumes, volume II, pp. 117-118).