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Lot description
GERTRUDE MASSEY (BRITISH fl. 1898-1911) Portrait miniature of a boy, circa 1905, in white shirt with blue ribbon necktie watercolour on ivory silver frame set with pearl border and pearl hanger oval, 78mm (3 ¼ in) high Gertrude Massey specialised in painting miniature portraits of children and later dogs. Her body of work includes likenesses of the children of Queen Alexandra and Edward VII, executed at Balmoral Castle. She clearly readily engaged with the somewhat arduous task of painting younger sitters, outlining in her autobiography the necessary measures taken in order to capture accurate likenesses of her easily distracted subjects: 'When children are very young - and I have painted children of all ages - I prefer to paint them in their own surroundings. They soon begin to play and forget that I am watching them. If they are old enough, I give them pencil and paper and ask them to draw me. Thus I get a good look every time they raise their heads to study me.' (Massey, p.83). The upward gaze of the boy in the present miniature, would suggest that the child was old enough to be asked to draw Gertrude.