Image: Manchester Art Gallery.

• Media: oil on canvas.
• Dimensions: canvas 50.7 x 33.0 cm, frame 77.0 x 60.7 x 6.7 cm.
• History:
  • 1883 – Exhibited Manchester Society of Women Painters, Nov 1883.
  • 1884 – Exhibited Royal Academy.
  • 1931 – “Gift from the sitter [to Manchester Art Gallery], 1931.”
• Location: Manchester Art Gallery.

The Manchester Courier, 21 Nov 1883, p6, states,”The portrait of Bertha, daughter of Mr. R. Edgar, is a very pleasing work in a scheme of red colour. The little lady is represented full length … .” The image at Manchester Art Gallery is only half-length, so the painting may have been truncated or the newspaper is in error.

The subject is Bertha Edgar (1876-1950), daughter of Robert Ashburn Edgar (1849-1924) and Emma Macbeth (d. 1924). She would have been seven or eight in 1883. Robert was a soliciter when married in 1871 living at 208 Plymouth Grove, Rusholme, Manchester, an address ⅓ mile south-east of Elizabeth Gaskell’s house.

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Page last updated 17 May 2025.