Portrait Oil Painting by Florence Small

A wonderfully dramatic oil on board portrait by the artist Florence Small 1859-1933. A fine oil portrait painted in profile using broad loose brushworks concentrating on a detailed depiction of the face. The work is signed to the lower left and dated 1882, the whole is in good untouched condition. Florence Veric Hardy Small (1859-1933), was born in Nottingham and studied art in Geneva, Berlin, and Paris. In Paris she trained under William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Deschamps, and Robert Henri. She settled in London sometime during or before the 1880s, and produced many portraits using oil paint and pastels, mostly of high society women and children. For the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1887 Florence Small painted a portrait of the queen from which chromolithograph copies were made and sold. Small exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français, and in 1909 she won a jury commendation. She also exhibited at the Royal Academy in London from 1881. She exhibited widely in other London galleries, including Grafton Gallery (in 1904) and Grosvenor Gallery (1889) and multiple times with the Allied Artists Association at the Royal Albert Hall. She also exhibited in Nottingham and other industrial cities such as Birmingham and Manchester. Small became a member of the Pastel Society in 1898, exhibiting with them in 1900 and 1910. This portrait is an extremely interesting and unusual piece for the artist and I suspect it was probably produced whilst studying abroad as it is free of the Victorian sentimentalism that her later work had. The painting is framed in what is almost certainly the original gilt frame which has been regilt at some time. The whole is a dramatic and decorative piece with a great impact. Overall sizes in inches including frame: 27 by 32 ½