"The Red Cap" by Anthony Frederick Augustus Sandys (1829-1904)

The Red Cap, by Anthony Frederick Augustus Sandys (1829-1904)

Dennis T. Lanigan

[Victorian Web Home —> Visual Arts —> Artists —> Pre-Raphaelitism —> Frederick Sandys —> Drawings —> Next]

The Red Cap

Anthony Frederick Augustus Sandys (1829-1904)

1900

Coloured chalk with pencil on greenish-blue paper attached to board

19 ¾ x 13 ¾ inches (49 x 34 cm)

Private Collection, image courtesy of Sotheby's

Betty Elzea describes this drawing as follows: "Bust of a girl facing to left, the head slightly turned towards the spectator. She wears a red fisherman's cap and a dress with a square yoke, loose bodice and puffed sleeves. She has shoulder-length curly hair" (289). The sitter was Sandys's youngest and most attractive daughter Gertrude, known to the family as "Girlie." She was only fourteen when this drawing was made and her father was seventy-one. Elzea felt Gertrude gave him "great joy at the end of his life" and that having her on hand as a model "had a rejuvenating effect on his art" (289). [Commentary continues below; mouse over thetext for links.]

Elzea notes that this is an excellent example of Sandys's late, softer drawing style which involved the spreading of tints with cotton wool. The eponymous cap may have been borrowed from one of the fishermen at Pevensey Bay in Sussex where the Sandys family holidayed around this time" (Sotheby's, 2018, 11). In 1913 Gertrude married Lionel Crane, the son of artist and designer Walter Crane, despite opposition from both families. They had one son, Anthony, who was born in 1915. Gertrude died in 1920 and Lionel was remarried to Gertrude's eldest sister Winifred in 1921.

Sandys's signature and date in the top left of the drawing.

Sandys made a later version of this drawing in 1903 but this is not as fine in quality as the original version. This version is smaller, the drawing of the cap is less detailed, she wears a somewhat different dress, and a spray of rose foliage has been added in the lower left. This later version sold at Sotheby's, London, on November 12, 1992, lot 155.

Bibliography

Bate, Percy "The Late Frederick Sandys: A Retrospective." The Studio XXXIII (October 1904): 3-17 (this drawing was reproduced on p.10; scanned by George P. Landow, it was the original image on this webpage).

Elzea, Betty. Frederick Sandys 1829-1904. A Catalogue Raisonné. Woodbridge, Suffolk: The Antique Collectors' Club Ltd., 2001, cat. no. 5.42, 289-90, and 5.57, 294.

Victorian Pictures. London: Sotheby's (12 November 1992): lot 155, 103.

Victorian, Pre-Raphaelite & British Impressionist Art. London: Sotheby's (12 July 2018): lot 3, 11.

Created 24 December 2010

Last modified 19 August 2025