(Lavinia Listening to Her Mother's Mournful Tale, 'Of What Her Faithless Fortune Promised Once' - Thomson's 'Autumn,", oil on canvas (lined), retaining an old hand-written label to the verso reading "Lavinia (the Thomson Seasons) Spilsbury," and a partial label reading "(illegible) / Wedgw....Burslem," presented in a period gilt composition frame likely original to the painting.

Stretcher size 17 x 21 in.; DOA 23.5 x 27.5 in.

Exhibited:
Royal Academy, Somerset House, London, England, 1807, as number 246

Published:
Yeldham, Charlotte. Maria Spilsbury (1776-1820): Artist & Evangelical. Burlington, VT: Ashgate. 2010.

Born in London in 1777, Maria Spilsbury Taylor moved to Ireland with her family in 1813. She was an accomplished artist and exhibited frequently at the Royal Academy, the British Institution, the Hibernian Society of Artists, and the Dublin Society. Spilsbury was a sought after artist and counted The Prince Regent as one of her greatest patrons. Her paintings are in numerous public and private collections including Tate Britain and the National Gallery of Ireland.

This painting was exhibited as number 246 at the Thirty-Ninth Exhibition of the Royal Academy in 1807. It depicts a scene from The Seasons by the Scottish author James Thomson. This series of four poems, published between 1726 and 1730, was immensely popular and chosen as a subject by such painters including Thomas Gainsborough and Sir Joshua Reynolds.

Stable craquelure; canvas in need of re-stretching; abrading to edges from frame; paint flake in brush to right of seated figure; some chipping and loss to frame.

$1,000 - 3,000