Alice Squire RI Young Lady on the Moors

An original late 19th-century watercolour painting, Alice Squire RI, Young Lady on the Moors.

A beautifully ethereal watercolour by Alice Squire RI (1840–1936). Squire's preferred subjects were flowering gardens, cottages and female figures, painted in a style reminiscent of her celebrated contemporary Helen Allingham (1848–1926).

Here a lone female gazes out across the moor, the view imbued with a sense of warmth and calm through Squire's thoughtful composition and delicate blending of watercolour. Another very similar subject by Squire is titled 'The New May Moon', a reference to the early 19th-century poem by Thomas Moore, which is a meditation on the beauty of nature and love. The smudge of white bodycolour in the sky at the left in the present painting possibly suggests a moon.

Alice Squire RI (1840–1936) was born in Westminster, London, one of seven sisters—most of whom remained unmarried and lived together at 28 Tavistock Road, Westbourne Gardens. An older sister, Emma (1836–1932) was also an artist. Working at a time when women could not gain the same recognition as men, Alice nevertheless exhibited widely, at Dudley Gallery Art Society, Manchester Academy of Fine Arts, Royal Academy of Arts, Royal Society of British Artists, Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours, Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour, Society of Women Artists, Arthur Tooth and Sons, and the Walker Art Gallery.

The majority of Squire's work appears to be owned privately but there is an example in the collection of The Geffrye Museum of the Home, London.

Presented in an attractive swept gilt frame.

Image size: 17.5 x 24.5cm. Frame size: 34.5 x 42cm.