
Image: artuk.org.
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 artuk.org 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.
- Media: oil on canvas.
- Dimensions: 330 x 507 mm (0.17 m²).
- History: 1883? (date of exhibition); exhibited Manchester Society of Women Painters, Nov 1883; “Gift from the sitter [to Manchester Art Gallery], 1931.”
- Location: Manchester Art Gallery.