Wednesday 3rd December - Yarmouth Beach

 I've worked out that I only have a couple more days of physically being in the office this year, including today! That is both exciting and sobering as I am now worrying whether I have done everything and what I need to leave copious notes for, so I don't forget to do things when I return in January.  Obviously, I'll be working from home in the meantime, and some of my colleagues never seem to sleep so I have to keep an eye on my work emails all over the festive period - well, maybe not on actual Christmas Day as I will be too busy eating.  Anyway, let's crack on with today!

Yarmouth Beach (1860-65) Frederick Sandys

I think I chose this one because it is a bit of a mixed bag.  The first thing I thought when I saw it was 'Really??!! Fred Sandys??!!' because I was used to his work looking like this...

Helen of Troy (1867)

But hang on, there is something about the face of that young lady, or to the point, the chin of that young lady, that seems to link the two images. In fact, this one seems a bit closer...

Mary Magdalen (Tears Idle Tears) (1862)

The model for this one was Mary Emma Jones, or Mary Sandys as she styled herself, the second 'wife' (they never married as he never actually got a divorce from his first wife) of Frederick Sandys who began to appear in his work (and that of his sister Emma) in the early 1860s.  Whilst his work in the first half of the 1860s is normally equated with images of Keomi Gray, as we can see from Mary Magdalen, Mary popped up at the same time as Sandys other mistress.

Let's start with the painting itself, it was donated to Norfolk Museums Service by Prince Frederick Duleep Singh.  In 1921, he gifted the Ancient House Museum of Thetford to the people of Norfolk, presumably including this picture. In some accounts of this work it is attributed to Anthony Sandys, father of Frederick and Emma and I can see why - the style doesn't seem the same and the subject matter is not really Fred's thing, but it isn't unusual for an artist to do a domestic painting of a loved one in a different style. Hang on then, while I'm about it, why can't this be by Emma?

Revealing Her Hand (undated) Emma Sandys

Okay, so the works we have by Emma are sparce in comparison, but I always wondered how difficult it would be to delete the bottom line of the E in 'ES' and make is 'FS' - don't blame me for thinking that way, after all I am very well acquainted with Aurora Triumphans, possibly Evelyn de Morgan's best work which was sold as a Burne-Jones because someone had altered the monogram of EP (Evelyn Pickering) to be EBJ. Emma also used Mary Jones as a model, so that chin might not have led me astray, yet again the subject matter does not seem right for Emma Sandys.  So what about Anthony Sandys?

Frederick Sandys (1848) Anthony Sands

Well, more properly, Anthony Sands as Fred added the 'y' around the 1850s (possibly to distance himself from his father's work) and seems to have dragged Emma along from the ride - if we are adding the 'l' back into Elizabeth Sidal's name, are we dropping the 'y' in Emma Sandys, as arguably both (or neither) were decisions made by men for her? Anyway, the problem I have with it being Anthony's work is the colour.  In style, yes, it looks very much older than the Pre-Raphaelite style both Fred and Emma adopted, so it is more like that early style, however our girl by the sea is glowing in a very Pre-Raphaelite manner. Looking at the portrait of Fred above, it is that more traditional sepia of older paintings that are not on the white painted base. Hmmm...

The subject matter is contemporary so I wondered if it is based on a book.  I immediately thought of Trollope and the appearance of Yarmouth in Can You Forgive Her? which was published around 1864 and 1865, so could our girl be a character from that? Is she reading that? I think the parasol is rather small, so I don't know how much shade it is providing to the book, but obviously enough to allow her to keep reading while out and about.  So where does that leave us? It does seem, by the treatment of the subject, this is more likely to be Anthony's work, albeit later on and possibly on a white base. However, I also wonder if it is Mary Jones as model - she was already modelling for two Sandys, why not three? That chin doesn't lie. 

My last thought is, what is she reading? I like to think it's her sister's diary and she is about to learn a dark and scandalous secret which she can accidentally let slip over the dinner table. That'll teach her to make fun of that tiny parasol.

See you tomorrow