Beschreibung:

Property from a British Private CollectionAnthony Frederick Augustus SandysBritish1832 - 1904Miranda
red and black chalkUnframed: 37 by 30.5cm., 14½ by 12in.Framed: 61.5 by 56cm., 24½ by 22in.Condition reportThe paper is flat and whilst it has darkened, the discolouration is overall and therefore not too distracting to the eye. There are several spots which may be discoloured restorations to foxing-marks. There are also three horizontal lines in the lower portion of the sheet where creases appear to have been restored in the past. Unexamined out of the frame.
Please note that Condition 12 of the Conditions of Business for Buyers (Online Only) is not applicable to this lot.
The lot is sold in the condition it is in at the time of sale. The condition report is provided to assist you with assessing the condition of the lot and is for guidance only. Any reference to condition in the condition report for the lot does not amount to a full description of condition. The images of the lot form part of the condition report for the lot. Certain images of the lot provided online may not accurately reflect the actual condition of the lot. In particular, the online images may represent colors and shades which are different to the lot's actual color and shades. The condition report for the lot may make reference to particular imperfections of the lot but you should note that the lot may have other faults not expressly referred to in the condition report for the lot or shown in the online images of the lot. The condition report may not refer to all faults, restoration, alteration or adaptation. The condition report is a statement of opinion only. For that reason, the condition report is not an alternative to taking your own professional advice regarding the condition of the lot. NOTWITHSTANDING THIS ONLINE CONDITION REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE/BUSINESS APPLICABLE TO THE RESPECTIVE SALE.ProvenanceJames Anderson Rose (by 1888; sale: Christie's, London, 5 May 1891, probably lot 89a (as Study of a Head) or 89b (as Portrait of a Lady))
Sale: Christie's, London, 8 November 1996, lot 33
Purchased at the above sale by the father of the present ownersLiteratureThe Century Guild Hobby Horse, vol. 3, April 1888, illustrated frontispiece from a photograph by Frederick Hollyer
Percy Bate, 'The Late Frederick Sandys A Retrospect', Studio, vol. 33, October 1904, p. 4, illustrated
Betty Elzea, Frederick Sandys - 1829-1904 - A Catalogue Raisonné, Woodbridge, 2001, p. 191, no. 2.A.106, illustratedCatalogue noteThe subject and title of the oil painting Miranda (private collection, illustrated on the dust-jacket of Betty Elzea’s catalogue raisonné of Sandys’ work) was not known until this drawing re-surfaced in 1984 after being lost for many years. It identified both the drawing and the painting as depicting the heroine of Shakespeare’s The Tempest but essentially they are portraits of Sandys’ muse and lover Mary Emma Jones. 
Mary Emma Jones was born in 1845 in Hull, daughter of a customs inspector at the docks. She first modelled for Sandys in 1862 when he was living in Norwich - she was probably visiting Norfolk as part of a travelling company of performers - but she disappeared from his pictures until 1866. By this time she had moved to London with her sisters who also made their living as models and actresses. She became Sandys' regular model and his lover with whom she had twelve children between 1867 and 1886 (ten survived infancy). At this time Mary Emma was known in artistic circles as 'Sandys' little girl' or as ‘Mrs. Neville’ a pseudonym extended to Sandys who called himself ‘Mr. Neville’ to assume a level of respectability in their relationship - he was estranged from his wife and his former muse and mistress Keomi Gray with whom he also had several children. Mary Emma also used the stage-name 'Miss Clive' and enjoyed some success on the stage in the 1870s but ultimately her career was deemed a failure. She appeared in many of Sandys' greatest paintings, drawings and illustrations and was immortalised by the poet Gordon Bottomley in his memorial poem written after her death in 1920; 'Now she is deathless by her lover's hand, To move our hearts and those of men not born, With famous ladies by her living hair - Helen and Rosamund and Mary Sandys.'
This drawing is among Sandys' earliest depictions of Mary Emma from their period of budding intimacy, made circa 1867 or 1868 at a time when Sandys was living with Rossetti and their work developed with parallel objectives. Sandys' depictions of Mary Emma contribute greatly to the emerging Pre-Raphaelite fashion in the 1860s for voluptuous red-haired 'Stunners' - Rossetti's word for beautiful models. The majority of Sandys' contemporary studies of Mary depict her as personifications of love or characters from well-known romantic stories. The three versions of Love's Shadow and the twelve versions of Proud Masie have strong sexual symbolism whilst Helen of Troy (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool) and Danae (Bradford Art Gallery) are remarkably erotic depictions for the era. Miranda, like Perdita painted a year earlier in 1866 (Collection of Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber), takes its title from the love-interest in a Shakespeare play and is a more sensitive depiction of Mary Emma, with less of the overt sensuality of Sandys' petulant femme fatales.
The drawing of Miranda belonged to James Anderson Rose (1819-1890), a solicitor with an office off the Strand and a large house on Wandsworth Common. Rose was a friend of many artists in the Pre-Raphaelite circle, several of whom shared his passion for collecting Chinese blue-and-white porcelain including Whistler, who Rose represented in the infamous slander case against Ruskin. He owned a large collection of pictures by Sandys, including the superb paintings Queen Eleanor (National Museum of Wales, Cardiff), Mary Magdalene (Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington), a portrait of himself (untraced, a study for which was sold Christie's, London, 11 June 2018, lot 79) a portrait of his wife Susanna (Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio) and around forty-five drawings, of which Miranda is among the finest, with the quality that led Rossetti to describe Sandys as 'the greatest living draughtsman'.