Beschreibung:

She was in an ecstasy of her own, watercolour with traces of pencil on thick paper, depicting a young girl dressed in a ragged pink dress, with holes in her boots and stockings, dancing with abandon under falling rain drops, with musical notes surrounding her, and figures in the background, signed lower right, lightly toned (with faint brown offset line to upper and right hand edges), image size 20 x 15.5cm (8 x 6.25ins), captioned in pencil in the artist's hand to lower margin beneath image, faint vertical crease to left hand blank margin, sheet size 29 x 25cm (11.5 x 9.75ins) Honor C. Appleton, well-known for her charming book illustrations of children, painted watercolours from an early age. As a young woman she attended the Art branch of the South Kensington Schools, and then Frank Calderon's School of Animal Painting where she gained a scholarship. This was followed by a brief spell in the studio of Sir Arthur Cope, RA, after which she enrolled at the Royal Academy Schools in 1901. She loved her time at the Schools, and her sketch books from this time show influences of Mabel Lucie Attwell Annie French James McNeil Whistler, Anne Anderson and William Heath Robinson In 1902 Honor's career as a book illustrator was launched, and over the next forty years she illustrated over 150 children's books. Honor is perhaps best known for her illustrations for Mrs. H.C. Cradock's "Josephine" series, in which she captures the innocence and spirit of her subject. Her earlier works have a more ethereal quality, and a delicacy of colour, which is seen to full effect in the works offered here. (1)