THE LADY IN WHITE.

Images: National Gallery of Victoria.

  • Title(s): The lady in white (this web site; National Gallery of Victoria; Christie’s, 11 Dec 2018); Full length portrait of a lady wearing a white dress and holding a bouquet of roses (Gorringe’s, 2017).
  • Description: “A blue-eyed lady who appears to be a singer, or an actress, stands on a stage before a curtained backdrop. She wears a white feather in her hair, strings of pearls around her neck and right arm, and has two ornate rings on her right hand. Her elaborate dress is of white silk or satin, with white lace trimming, a single red rose attached at its waist. In her left hand she holds a loose bouquet of flowers, some of which have fallen to the floor” (National Gallery of Victoria).
  • Media: oil on canvas (Christie’s, 2018).
  • Dimensions: “76 ¾ x 45 ¾ in. (195 x 116.2 cm.)” (Christie’s, 2018); “76 x 45in” (Gorringe’s, 2017).
  • Signature/date/other text: “inscribed in brown paint l.r.: Annie L. Robinson / 1878” (National Gallery of Victoria).
  • History:
    • 1878 – “signed and dated ‘Annie L. Robinson / 1878.’ (lower right)” (Christie’s, 2018).
    • 2017 Mar 21 – Auctioned Gorringe’s, Lewes, provenance “Property of a deceased estate”, lot 758, “Full length portrait of a lady wearing a white dress and holding a bouquet of roses / 193 x 114 cm”, sold: hammer £4,600.
    • 2018 Dec 11 – Auctioned Christie’s, London, “Signed dated ‘Annie L. Robinson 1878.’ lower right / Illustrated on page 88 of the catalog”, lot 196, sold: hammer £10,000, premium £12,500; gifted by the purchaser to the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia. The ‘Lady in White’ title comes from this auction.
  • Location: National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia.

The is a detailed essay on the work on the National Gallery of Victoria web site. They also state “Place/s of Execution / Paris, France”, but with no evidence for the statement.

This may be the work referred to in The Manchester Evening News, 16 Mar 1877: “[At the Manchester Academy of Fine Arts exhibition] No. 378, “Roses,” by Miss Annie Robinson, a large and ambitious portrait of a lady in a white satin dress, with a bunch of red roses in her hand … The pose of the figure is pleasing and somewhat original, although founded on similar attitudes to be found in Sir Joshua Reynolds’s works … we cannot detect the presence of the human form divine underneath the grand satin dress. There is an absence of flesh and blood …”. This was the year before the date on the work, but Annie may well have continued to work on the piece over the next year and added the date then.

Called ‘The Lady in White’ in 2018 Christie’s sale, a title the auction house appears to have created for the work and followed by the National Gallery of Victoria. Pending identification as ‘Roses’ or another work, the Christie’s/NGV title is used here.

Page last updated 17 Oct 2025.