WHYTE'S IRISH & INTERNATIONAL ART Monday 19 October 2020

38 21 Sarah Henrietta Purser HRHA (1848-1943) THEOCRITE [THE LITTLE ACOLYTE] 1886 oil on canvas titled [Theocrite] and with artist’s name on handwritten label on reverse; also with artist’s name [Miss Purser] on J.D. Spence [Lower Sackville St., Dublin] label on reverse; also with label of Millar & Beatty, Ltd. [Grafton Street, Dublin] on reverse 36 by 24in. (91.4 by 61cm) Frame size: 47.5 by 35in. (121 by 89cm.) Provenance: RHA, Dublin, 1886; Private collection, UK; Drake’s Auctions, Tavistock, England, 27 August, 2018, lot 6; Where purchased by the present owner Exhibited: RHA, Dublin, 1886, catalogue no. 88 [£31-10-0] Literature: Catalogue of the RHA, 1886; Daily Express, 1 & 15 March 1886; Freeman’s Journal, 3 March 1886; Irish Times, 26 March 1886; Dublin University Review, Art Supplement, March, 1886; John O’Grady, The Life andWork of Sarah Purser, Four Courts Press, Dublin, 1996, listed as catalogue no. 143 (recorded as ‘not located’) Dr John O’Grady notes in his text, “The reviews say this showed a ‘little acolyte as he stands in his robes, hands clasped, in the act of worship’ with ‘light hair and blue eyes’ and lacework over the upper part of his scarlet costume’. Sarah Purser priced it and no. 118 (her other exhibit in the RHA in 1886, The Gardener’s Daughter) equally at £31-10-0. They were of equal size. €5,000-€7,000 (£4,440-£6,220 approx.) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot21 22 No Lot