2802

Preparatory work

Mrs Oswald Battine, née Audrey Magee 1935

Seated, three-quarter length to the right, wearing a dark purple velvet stole over an amethyst coloured evening dress, her right hand on her hip, her left elbow resting on the arm of her chair, her left hand holding an amethyst pendant which hangs from a long gold chain around her neck

Oil on canvasboard, 40.7 x 33 cm (16 x 13 in.)

Sitters Book II, opp. f. 85: Audrey Battine- Oct. 3rd 1935-.

Studio Inventory, p. 72 (384): Study of Mrs. Battine

Private Collection

This is one of two oil studies completed for the formal portrait [2800] of the sitter in October 1935. The second study [112216] was destroyed in accordance with the artist’s wishes after his death. The sitter holds a long necklace with amethyst pendant, which the artist altered to a jade bangle in the finished picture.

For biographical notes on the sitter, see [2800].

PROVENANCE: 

In the possession of the artist on his death;

By descent in his family;

Sold Christie’s, South Kensington 13 June 1997

KF 2014