Large Pre-raphaelite Victorian Oil Painting Portrait Lady by John Maler Collier OBE RP

Large fine original 19th Century English Victorian antique oil painting on canvas portrait prominent lady seated knitting signed John Collier. Painted in the typical Pre-Raphaelite style. Subject portrait of a "Prominent Important Lady" posing seated in her favourite green armchair knitting. You can judge by her jewellery & clothes she is wearing that she is a lady of importance in high society. Signed in red by the worldwide known famous English listed artist John Maler Collier (1850-1934). The sitter is believed to be possibly Lady Halle in later life, also known as Wilhelmine Maria Franziska Neruda (1838–1911). Lady Hallé, was a Moravian virtuoso violinist, chamber musician, and teacher. A celebrated Moravian-born violinist whose career spanned more than six decades, her first public performance was aged seven, playing a sonata by Bach. She toured Europe with her family, visiting England in 1849. She married the Swedish conductor and composer Ludwig Norman in 1864, and became known as Wilma Norman-Neruda. They separated in 1869 and in the same year, she returned to London, where her appearances were so popular that she returned annually. Here, she met pianist and conductor Charles Hallé who became her second husband in 1888. In 1901, Hallé was appointed violinist to Queen Alexandra. Such a fine musuem quality work of art. Set in the original fine giltwood frame by Richard Turley, Turley was described by John Collier as 'my frame maker' in 1898 source: Npg Directory of British Picture Frame Makers. On the reverse, the printed trade label of Richard Turley Carver & Gilder 21 Crogsland Road Kentish Town Nw. John Maler Collier Obe Rp Roi (Born on 27 January 1850 – died 11 April 1934) was a leading English painter and writer. He painted in the Pre-Raphaelite style, and was one of the most prominent portrait painters of his generation. Both his marriages were to daughters of Thomas Henry Huxley. He studied painting at the Munich Academy starting in 1875.Collier was from a talented and successful family. His grandfather, John Collier, was a Quaker merchant who became a member of parliament. His father, Robert, (who was a member of parliament, Attorney General and, for many years, a full-time judge of the Privy Council) was created the first Lord Monkswell. He was also a member of the Royal Society of British Artists. John Collier's elder brother, the second Lord Monkswell, was Under-Secretary of State for War and Chairman of the London County Council. In due course, Collier became an integral part of the family of Thomas Henry Huxley Pc, President of the Royal Society from 1883 to 1885. Collier married two of Huxley's daughters and was "on terms of intimate friendship" with his son, the writer Leonard Huxley. Collier's first wife, in 1879, was Marian (Mady) Huxley. She was a painter who studied, like her husband, at the Slade and exhibited at the Royal Academy and elsewhere. After the birth of their only child, a daughter, she suffered severe post-natal depression and was taken to Paris for treatment where, however, she contracted pneumonia and died in 1887. Collier's daughter by his first marriage, Joyce, was a portrait miniaturist, and a member of the Royal Society of Miniature Painters. In 1889 Collier married Mady's younger sister Ethel Huxley. Until the Deceased Wife's Sister's Marriage Act 1907 such a marriage was not possible in England, so the ceremony took place in Norway. By his second wife he had a daughter and a son, Sir Laurence Collier, who was the British Ambassador to Norway 1941–51. Collier's range of portrait subjects was broad. In 1893, for example, his subjects included Lovelace Stamer, Bishop of Shrewsbury; Sir John Lubbock Frs; A N Hornby (Captain of the Lancashire Eleven); Edward Augustus Inglefield (Admiral and Arctic explorer). His commissioned portrait of the Duke of York (later George V) as Master of Trinity House in 1901, and the Prince of Wales (later Edward Viii) were his major royal portraits. The latter work was hung in Durbar Hall, Jodhpur, Rajputana. Other subjects included two Lord Chancellors (the Earl of Selborne in 1882 and the Earl of Halsbury) in 1897; The Speaker of the House of Commons, William Gully, (1897); senior legal figures the Lord Chief Justice Lord Alverstone (1912) and the Master of the Rolls Sir George Jessel (1881). Rudyard Kipling (1891); the painter Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1884); the actors J.L. Toole (1887) and Madge Kendal, Ellen Terry and Herbert Beerbohm Tree (in The Merry Wives of Windsor) (1904); heads of educational institutions such as the Master of Balliol Edward Caird (1904), the Warden of Wadham G.E. Thorley (1889) and the Provost of Eton (1897). Soldiers such as Field Marshal Lord Kitchener of Khartoum (1911) and Field Marshal Sir Frederick Haines (1891); two Indian maharajahs, including the Maharajah of Nepal (1910) and scientists including Charles Darwin (1882), the artist's father-in-law Professor Huxley (1891), William Kingdom Clifford, James Prescott Joule and Sir Michael Foster (1907). Clark reports a total of thirty-two Huxley family portraits during the half-century after his first marriage. Sixteen of John Collier's paintings are now in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery in London, and two are in the Tate Gallery. Four of the National Portrait Gallery paintings were in December 1997 on display: John Burns, Sir William Huggins, Thomas Huxley (the artist's father in law) and Charles Darwin (copies of the last two are also prominently displayed at the top of the staircase at the Athenaeum Club in London). 1907 self-portrait has been preserved in the Uffizi in Florence which presumably commissioned it as part of its celebrated collection of artists’ self-portraits. Other pictures may be seen in houses and institutions open to the public: his Clytemnestra, a large and striking painting of the murderess, is in the Guildhall Gallery of the City of London. The Death Sentence was given by the widow of the artist to Wolverhampton Art Gallery. His portrait of the Earl of Onslow (1903), is at Clandon Park, Surrey (National Trust). His full-length portrait of Sir Charles Tertius Mander, first baronet, is at Owlpen Manor, Gloucestershire, with another version in the collection of the National Trust at Wightwick Manor, and his Lady Godiva is in the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum.Reference sources: Website of William Shannon Fine Art, June 2019. Reference sources wikipedia, National Portrait Gallery, Tate, Artuk, Artnet, Invaluable, Mutualart. Such a delightful scene to the eye. Attention to every detail is magnificent, the hands, the lady's dress, her face & the green chair. Provenance bought from a fine art antique, collectors sale, lot 718, 14th January 2021. Highly sought after due to the collectible nature of the subject matter such elaborate detail. The brushwork is of highest exceptional quality. With hanging thread on the back ready for immediate home display. Incredible conversation piece for your guests. We only select & sell paintings based upon quality & significance. We understand your purchase is for your home or as an investment. We provide our clients with friendly professional customer service. International buyers worldwide shipping is available please ask for a quote. Viewings are welcome by appointment only for customer support please send a message thank you. Checkout our exciting other available listings in our shop gallery, happy shopping.