Photos: Jonathan Russell.

Image: Richard Taylor Fine Art eBay listing [dead link].

• Title(s): Jebsa (this web site); Jebsa (Roma Lady) (Manchester art Gallery when on loan for 2018-2019 exhibition); Portrait of a Roma Lady – Jebsa (Richard Taylor Fine Art). Note: ‘Roma’ is the Italian spelling of ‘Rome’.
• Description: Portrait of an older woman wearing clothes of white, yellow/gold, pink, blue and red, with a broad white cloth cap, large ornate gold earrings and gold rings on both hand. Her arms are loosely folded across her front, her head turned slightly to the left and gaze similarly averted. Background plain, gradating darker towards the canvas edges.
• Media: oil on canvas (Richard Taylor Fine Art).
• Dimensions: 40 x 30 inches, “19th century gallery frame 51 by 41 inches approx” (Richard Taylor Fine Art).
• Signature/date/other text: “Annie L Robinson / Roma, / 1……” (date indistinct); “Painted in Roma in 1874 it is titled verso Jebsa” (Richard Taylor Fine Art).
• History:
  • 1874 – “Painted in Roma in 1874” (Richard Taylor Fine Art).
  • 193(7?) – Presented to Prior Park College by B. L. Bisgood Esq. (Label on back.) (Richard Taylor Fine Art.)
  • 2018 onwards – Richard Taylor Fine Art, provenance “Midlands estate” (Richard Taylor Fine Art).
  • 2018-2024 – Exhibited (on loan from Richard Taylor Fine Art) Manchester Art Gallery, 23 Feb 2018 to 6 Jan 2019.
• Location: Richard Taylor Fine Art.

Notice by picture when on display at Manchester Art Gallery, 2018-2019: “Swynnerton produced this painting during her first visit to Rome, where she was pursuing an education in Italian art, as was common for many male artists … The primary title, Jebsa, does not seem to be taken from a literary story and suggests Swynnerton knew her sitter on first name terms”.

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Page last updated 16 Oct 2025.