I finally found my Pandora picture by dragging the image into Google Image search. This dainty little soul is from a painting by William Henry Margetson. The print is on silk and I've found a couple of sites with her for sale, but there isn't much about this particular painting. Called variously The Iron Chest and Girl With a Treasure Chest it was painted in 1924. Oxford Art Online gives the artist a scant few sentences, but tells me that he lived from 1861-1940. There is however a brief blog post here which has a good range of his images, all of a similar style. There are also collections of his work on Pinterest. It looks as though he was a populist painter of delicate ladies in various situations, but also did a number of illustrations for fairy tales, poetry, biblical stories and adventures with delightful titles like "The Tyger of Mysore" or "With Cochrane the Dauntless". He seems to be a rather derivative artist, I can see parallels with a range of painters from Waterhouse to Kroyer, perhaps the reason Oxford are a bit sniffy about him!
I still think she's lovely, even if she isn't Pandora!
Hi, l too have a WH Margetson 'Pandora's Box' print on silk which I love to bits, she has pride of place on my bedroom wall. Thanks to your blog I now know a bit more about her. Elaine
ReplyDeleteHi Elaine, welcome to my blog. I'm so glad to have added to your understanding - she really is lovely isn't she? Took me a couple of years of intermittent web searching to track her down; one of the wonders of the Internet :-)
DeleteI too have this water colour which is titled "The Iron Chest" and was exhibited at the Royal Institute. On the back there is a full page of detail about the painting from the supplier which is Thos. Forman and sons. Nottingham 1925
ReplyDeleteKeith
I have a copy that was printed in 1925 by Thos. Forman and Sons. On the back is a page of descriptive detail that notes that the print is titled "The Iron Chest" which was taken from the original water colour by W.H. Margetson which was exhibited at the Royal Institute. Apparently he painted a small series for Thos. Forman & sons for a calander in 1926. hope this helps. Keith
ReplyDeleteHi Keith,
Deletehow wonderful to have that extra detail; thank you so much for sharing with me. I shall do some googling to find out more. Wouldn't it have been delightful to have had the whole calendar when it was fusrt published. Eerily, 1926 was the year my Mum was born, she died in 2010, it puts a whole new perspective on the image.
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ReplyDeleteHi Bob, Kath here. my blog is set so that replies on older posts need to be moderated by me before posting on the page, hence the delay, rather than Google being rude!!:-) I think it's to ensure that spam doesn't find it's way into old unwatched posts on blogs.
DeleteHow lovely that you have both prints by this artist, and what a happy background story as well. It is kind of you to offer to scan the texts on the back, but it wouldn't add to my pleasure in the picture so I will spare you the effort. I've just googled the other image that you have, which is equally delightful, no wonder you loved them so much as a child. I'm glad you have them now on your wall to enjoy both for themselves and as reminders of your family.
Just to check, now that your post is visible on my blog your e-mail address is also visible to all and sundry. Would you like me to delete both replies as a data protection precaution? I will e-mail you direct as well to check so that you can respond quickly if you don't see this reply from me
I have 2 prints on silk that are very similar by same artist... o
ReplyDeleteThe one with the serene looking lady is entitled “ Just Happy”
Cheryl x
Hello Cheryl, how lovely to have those, and how marvelous that these potentially fragile things have survived for us to enjoy them
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