Provenance

• 1885: probably owned by the sitter's parents, Mortimer Luddington Menpes (1860-1938) and Rosa Mary Menpes (1855-1936);
• 1903: with the Leicester Galleries, London;
• 1904: owned by Rosa Mary Menpes (1855-1936).

It may be that the drawing stayed in the family after Mrs Menpes's death. It could have passed to the sitter, Walter Mortimer Menpes (1886-1945). In 1939 he married Joan Miller-Davis (1910-1945), and they had one son, Michael Mortimer Menpes (1939-1993). Joan Menpes's will was administered by Edith Winifred Hammond, Mrs Edward Holbrey Hammond (1885-1955) and by Claude Menpes (1892-1963). Claude had married Winifred Kate Smith (1886-1972) in Ontario, Canada, but had eventually returned to England. However, so far no trace of the watercolour has been found.

See MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1017).

Exhibitions

• 1903: An Exhibition of watercolour drawings by leading artists, Leicester Galleries, London, 1903 (cat. no. 33 as 'Master Menpes.'