WORKING – METHOD of Edward Hughes
113cm x 77cm
Hand-carved gilt frame
Who is the young girl ?
Without any provenance, it is asking an enormous lot
of connoisseurship to identify the sitter (1) Unique to
the
Art Case, the artist himself answers the question:
Cynthia Mary Trench – Gascoigne
The 'Gascoigne Commission’
Edward Hughes was famous in his own lifetime, as a portraitist.
Royal and Society portrait sittings and viewings of the completed commission were all catered for at the artists studio in Gower Street, London.
Hughes was at Lotherton Hall in 1897 to complete the portrait sittings of Alvary Trench – Gascoigne.
For the 1898 Double Portrait of 'Laura Gwendolen and Alvary’.
It is the integrity of his working – method to complete the 'Gascoigne Commission’ which proves the identity of the sitter in the 1904 Grand Portrait.
The Gascoigne Commission is linked to:
'The Hon. Mrs Denham-Cookes, Arthur and Clara’ (1896)
'Mrs Florence Villiers with her son Algernon’ (1897)
Edward Hughes (1832 – 1908)
London born portraitist received his first Royal commission in 1895.
Portrait of the Duchess of York (Victoria Mary, later Queen Mary) displayed in the vestibule of Buckingham Palace.
Hughes and his daughter Alice, a pioneer of portrait photographer, worked together at studios in Gower Street, London, with a large number of staff to complete Royal and Society commissions.
Alice Hughes (1857 – 1939)
Photographed women and children in a 'distinctive style’. Recognised by the National Portrait Gallery as an important portraitist (archive of 54 photogravure portraits).
(1) Entered in a saleroom in 2009. See page Information: Art Case