The Duet. 1867-69. Pencil, watercolour and gouache on paper; 31 x 43 inches (78.7 x 109.3 cm). Private collection. Click on image to enlarge it
The Duet was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1878, no. 766. It is a portrait of Alexandra, daughter of the Rev. G. W. Kitchin, and Winifred Holiday, the daughter of the painter. The Reverend Dr. George William Kitchin (1827-1912), an Oxford graduate, became Dean of Winchester and subsequently Dean of Durham and the first Chancellor of the University of Durham. He was friends with both John Ruskin and Lewis Carroll.
Holiday had first met Kitchen’s brother, T. M. Kitchen, when the Kitchens were his near neighbours in St. Stephen’s Square in Bayswater. Kitchen introduced Holiday to his brother G. W. Kitchin when the family came to London to visit. This was the beginning of a life-long friendship. Holiday initially painted portraits of both Kitchen’s wife and daughter prior to painting The Duet in 1877. Kitchen’s daughter Alexandra (1864-1912) was named after her godmother, Alexandra of Denmark, then Duchess of Wales. Alexandra Kitchen, known to her family as Xie, was a beautiful child who attracted the attention of Lewis Carroll. She was the subject of at least five photographs by Carroll at intervals between the ages of four and sixteen. Xie grew up to be a proficient violinist and later became Mrs. Arthur Cardew. Winifred, the only child of Henry and Kate Holiday, was born in 1865. She showed a marked aptitude for music from and early age and won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music in 1883. During their youth the two friends likely played duets together many times. Winifred never married and grew up to be an accomplished violinist, violin teacher, and an orchestra conductor.
In The Duet the slightly older Alexandra is shown turning the sheet music while Winifred is poised to begin playing. A harpsichord or clavichord is visible in the background to the far right. An oval portrait of Mozart hangs beneath the overmantel. Mozart had been one of Holiday’s heroes since he was a young man. Both girls are dressed in the “Aesthetic” manner of fashions favoured by artistic families in the 1870s. Xie wears a green velvet dress with an embroidered design of stars on the sleeves of her blouse. Winifred wears a smocked pinafore dress. The interior is that of the drawing room of Oak Tree House in Hampstead, which the Holiday family moved into in March of 1874.
Bibliography
Henry Holiday 1839–1927. London: William Morris Gallery, Walthamstow, 1989, cat. 55, 12.
“Victorian, Pre-Raphaelite & British Impressionist Art. Sotheby’s, London, December 17, 2015, lot 5.
Last modified 15 January 2023