"Study [Daffodils]" by Anthony Frederick Augustus Sandys (1829-1904)

Study [Daffodils], by Anthony Frederick Augustus Sandys (1829-1904)

Dennis T. Lanigan

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Study [Daffodils]

Anthony Frederick Augustus Sandys (1829-1904)

1896

Coloured chalks on greenish-blue paper; 13 ¾ x 10 inches (35 x 25.4 cm)

Private collection. Image courtesy of Sotheby's, London

In Betty Elzea's words: "Bust of a young woman facing half to left, with her eyes turned slightly upward. Her wavy hair is dressed up in a bun at the back of her head. She wears a gauzy dress with puffed sleeves and a square neckline. Double-petalled daffodils fill the immediate background to the left and the right of the figure" (283). The daffodils were likely included purely for decorative purposes. In the Victorian language of flowers double-petalled daffodils were frequently associated with unrequited love or grief.

[Commentary continues below.]

Elzea feels that the sitter was Sandys's eldest daughter Winifred, who was twenty-five at the time, while Sotheby's thought the drawing depicted another daughter, Ruth. The latter would become a designer, most famous for her posters for the London Underground.

A closer view of the sitter's face.

Links to Related Material

Bibliography

Bate, Percy "The Late Frederick Sandys: A Retrospective." The Studio XXXIII (October 1904): 3-17. [The original image on this webpage, added in 2010 by George P. Landow, was an engraving of this portrait on p. 12.]

Elzea, Betty. Frederick Sandys 1829-1904. A Catalogue Raisonné. Woodbridge, Suffolk: The Antique Collectors' Club Ltd., 2001, cat. no. 5.27, 283.

Fine Victorian Paintings, Drawings and Watercolours. London: Sotheby's Belgravia (9 March 1976): lot 36, 21.

Victorian, Pre-Raphaelite & British Impressionist Art. London: Sotheby's (July 14, 2016): lot 11.

Created 23 December 2010

Last modified 19 August 2025