Sir James Jebusa Shannon, R.A., R.B.A. (1862-1923)

Shannon’s striking white-on-white palette and square brushwork align his art with that of the progressive French painter Jules Bastien-Lepage (1848-1884), whose influence was transmitted to Shannon particularly by Henry Herbert La Thangue (1859-1929). The present painting is likely a study for Madonna and Child (current whereabouts unknown), a work depicting his most important patron Violet, Duchess of Rutland, and her youngest child Diana (later Lady Diana Cooper). It also relates to an unfinished canvas, Christ Blessing a Woman (private collection) and an untraced work (also titled Madonna and Child), all of which date to the early 1890s and represent the artist’s rare excursions into religious subject matter.