John Maler Collier  (1850-1934) "Portrait of Mary, Jane an...

Hammer

€6,000

John Maler Collier  (1850-1934)

"Portrait of Mary, Jane and George Glass-Hooper, 1919," O.O.C., 49" x 78" (125cms x 198cms), Signed lower right ‘John Collier 1919’. Bears label on reverse: ‘Royal Society of Portrait Painters: Hon John Collier,  69 Eton Avenue, N. W. 3;  Mary, Janey & George: Children of George Glass-Hooper Esq.’

Provenance: By direct family descent.
Together with the Bench depicted in the painting. (2)

Against a dark background, a boy and two girls are depicted sitting on a school bench. All three are dressed similarly, with grey jumpers, grey woollen socks and black shoes. Seated on the left, the boy looks out at the viewer, while in the centre, the girl sits with an open book on her knees, reading. On the right, also looking at the book, is the third member of this fine portrait. The label on the reverse of this painting confirms the names of the sitters as ‘Mary, Janey & George: Children of George Glass-Hooper Esq.’

A civil engineer, born around 1865 in Devon, George Frederick Glass-Hooper firstly married Annabel Mary Montefiore of Charmouth in Dorset, and secondly, in 1908, Sevilla Florence Erskine, in Paddington, London. Originally from Hatherleigh in Devon, George was managing director of Kerr, Stuart & Co., a company that built railway locomotives in Stoke-on-Trent, while Sevilla, from Scotland, was the daughter of the Colonial Secretary of Natal. George died in 1932, while his widow Sevilla lived to the age of 91, having lived in St. Helens on the Isle of Wight, and in Kensington.

John Collier had previously painted a double portrait of two Glass-Hooper daughters, Dulcie and Joyce Durbin, daughters of Glass-Hooper’s first wife. The two sisters were painted just after the death of their mother, in Collier's studio, with furnishings from their home in Palace Court, Bayswater. Apparently to prevent them fidgeting and arguing, separate sittings were needed. Collier only painted them together for the final sitting, when he was painting the hands.

The three children in the present portrait, Mary, Sevilla Jane and George, were from Glass-Hooper’s second marriage. They were born and brought up at Downe Hall, an eighteenth century house built for William Downe, a London merchant from a long established Bridport family in Dorset. The daughter Sevilla Janey depicted in this painting was born in 1911 and went on to marry William O’Brien Lindsay. (Another portrait of her by Collier is still in the Glass-Hooper family collection). She died in 1993. Of the other children in the portrait, Mary went on to marry Kenneth Falkner, and the painting is being offered for sale by her daughter.

John Collier evidently had a close relationship with the Glass-Hooper family over several decades. The grandson of a Quaker merchant, and son of a Member of Parliament, Collier was educated at Eton College. He studied painting firstly at the Slade, under Edward Poynter, then in Paris with Jean-Paul Laurens, and, beginning in 1875, at the Munich Academy. However, the major influence on his work was the Victorian artist Alma-Tadema. Collier married, firstly, Marian Huxley, a fellow student at the Slade and in 1881 the couple settled in Tite Street, Chelsea. After the death of Marian from pneumonia in 1887, Collier married her sister Ethel Huxley. He was a successful artist, producing paintings reminiscent of the Pre-Raphaelite movement and among his many portrait subjects were members of judiciary, military officers, the royal family and members of parliament. He also illustrated stories written by Thomas Hardy, and painted subjects from mythology and literature. Collier lived at 69 Eton Avenue in Belsize Park, in a house built for him in 1890 by Frederick Waller.

Dr. Peter Murray 2025

More Information

Painting: Overall Condition Good.
No obvious repair.
Bench: Structure solid.
Some cracks to Top .
Worming at base, possibly treated previously.

Lot: Sold as is.