Catalogue entry
T03643 A STUDY c. 1887
Oil on canvas 18 × 14 (455 × 355)
Inscribed on reverse of canvas ‘A STUDY|Sidney Starr|38 Abercorn Place|Abbey Road,|N.W.’
Presented anonymously in memory of Terence Rattigan 1983
Prov: ...; Walter Sickert by 1889, given to Miss Florence Pash, later Mrs Humphrey Holland, sold to Rex Nan Kivell of the Redfern Gallery; ...; ? Roland, Browse and Delbanco, sold August 1954 to H.E. Bates; H.E. Bates, sold March 1960 to Roland, Browse and Delbanco, sold April 1960 to the donor
Exh: ?Royal Society of British Artists, winter 1887–8 (368, as ‘A Study’); London Impressionists, Goupil Gallery, December 1889 (5, as ‘Portrait Sketch’, and as lent by Brandon Thomas); Sidney Starr Memorial Exhibition, Goupil Gallery, June 1926 (22, as ‘Portrait Sketch’); The Early Years of the New English Art Club, City Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham, July–August 1952 (92, as ‘A Woman in a Basket Chair’, and as lent by John Russell); Plaisirs de L'Epoque, Redfern Gallery, December 1954–January 1955 (49, as ‘Le Repos’)
The inscription on the back of the canvas gives some clue as to when this picture was first exhibited. Starr lived at Abercorn Place 1883–9. Works exhibited as ‘A Study’ during this period are: RA 1884 (217, the address mistakenly being given as ‘Aberdeen Place’); Royal Society of British Artists (RBA) 1884 (58, £8.8s); RBA winter 1884–5 (245, £10.10s); and RBA winter 1887–8 (368, £21). The general similarity of this picture to the pastel ‘The Pink Shawl’ in the Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield (also known as ‘The Convalescent’), which is signed and dated 1887, suggests the last possibility. Besides the stylistic similarity both works seem to show the same winged arm-chair… (read more)
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