PORTRAIT OF A LADY HOLDING A FLOWER (AND c. 1932 PHOTOGRAPH).

Images: unattributed source.

Images: Darnley Fine Art.

  • Title(s): Portrait of a lady holding a flower (this web site); Portrait of a lady with a flower (Darnley Fine Art); Portrait of a lady (Christie’s, 2005).
  • Description: Bust portrait of a dark-haired woman, body turned halfway to the sitter’s left, face looking almost directly at the viewer. Her left hand is held up to the side of her face with what appears to be a flower in the palm. Background an abstract mottling and detailing increasingly diffuse outside the hair and face. The canvas was cut from a larger work visible in a photograph taken in the early 1930s.
  • Media: Oil on canvas (Christie’s 2005).
  • Dimensions: Original canvas approx. 137 x 86 cm (estimated from photograph); cut down canvas 57.1 x 45.7 cm (Christie’s, 2005).
  • Signature/date/other text: “signed «A Swynnerton» lower left” (Christie’s, 1991 & 2005).
  • History:
    • c. 1932 – Visible in photograph taken c. 1932.
    • 1991 Jun 28 – Auctioned Christie’s, South Kensington, “Signed «A Swynnerton» lower left”.
    • 1973 Jun 23 – Referenced in letter attached to back of picture (Darnley Fine Art).
    • 2005 Sep 7 – Auctioned Christie’s, London, lot 95, “signed ‘A. Swynnerton’ (lower left) / oil on canvas / 22½ x 18 in. (57.1 x 45.7 cm.)”, passed.
    • Date? – Acquired by private collector (date/details lost – private communication).
    • 2025 Jan onwards – with Darnley Fine Art, exhibited in the vendor’s ‘Female Artists Exhibition’ (Dec 2024); “the canvas shows signs that it was once rolled and then put onto board” (private communication).
  • Location: ?

There is obvious similarity between the 1932* photograph and the auctioned Portrait of a lady holding a flower.

The owner of the work (Dec 2024) kindly contacted this web site, saying,

* The photograph, one of several taken on the same occasion and which appear various places on the web, was taken circa 1932. I have not been able to discover the source or exact date.

Letter attached to back of work (Darnley Fine Art, 2025).

Many thanks to Darnley Fine Art for allowing close inspection of the work (JR, 25/11/25).

Page last updated 25 Nov 2025.