Jessica Hayllar

Tree Peony is typical of the accomplished and delicate interiors painted by Jessica Hayllar at her father's houses in Mecklenburg Square in London and in Berkshire. The Hayllar family homes, firstly in Wallingford and latterly in Bournemouth, were comfortable and fashionable, reflecting the late nineteenth century Aesthetic Movement taste for combining antique European furniture with Oriental porcelain and modern wallpapers and soft furnishings. The same table inlaid with tortoise-shell appears in Far Away Thoughts painted in 1885 (sold in these rooms, 19 November 2013, lot 29). Like her three sisters, who were all painters, Jessica liked to bring the beauty of the garden into her paintings, either with glimpses through the windows or vases displaying blooms such as the tree peonies in the present picture. She exhibited at the Royal Academy in London regularly between 1879 and 1915 and also had works shown at the Society of British Artists, the Institute of Painters in Oil Colours and at the Royal Manchester Institution. Following an accident where she was knocked down by a carriage in 1900, she withdrew to her father's house in Bournemouth and painted still-lifes.