HENRY SCOTT TUKE (BRITISH, 1858-1929)

Footnote
Known for his intimate studies of masculinity, the present work displays Tuke's ability to render femininity with equal skill and sensitivity.  In a charmingly unselfconscious pose, his only sister, Maria is shown adjusting a firescreen, built to shield a woman's makeup from excess heat.  The treatment of the silk gown, with its myriad shades and adornments, is particularly accomplished.  The garment belonged to Mary Mara Scott (1748-1815) who married Maria's great grandfather, Henry Tuke (1755-1814) in 1781.  Marrying into a quaker family meant Mary relinquished the majority of her luxurious clothes but this gown was retained and is now thought to be in the collection at the V&A.  

Like her brother, Maria was a talented artist in her own right and, in spite of no formal training, shows a deftness of touch with watercolour similar to Henry Scott Tuke along with other artists whom she befriended including Thomas Cooper Gotch.  She was born in Falmouth in 1861, following the family's move from York and was educated in Reigate.  In 1899 she married Dr. Harrington Sainsbury with whom she had four children.  Following his death she converted to Catholicism and spent her final years in a Catholic convent on the Bayswater Road, London.

She was close to her brother and was with him at his Cottage in Swanpool Falmouth when he died in 1929.  The present work was probably painted at Lyndon Lodge, Hanwell where her parents lived from 1883.