Live Auction 20111British and European Art
EDWIN LONG R.A. (BRITISH, 1829–1891)
Lot 50 FROM THE ESTATE OF A DISTINGUISHED PRIVATE COLLECTOR

EDWIN LONG R.A. (BRITISH, 1829–1891)

The Daughter of Bethlehem

Closed15 July 2021

Price Realised

GBP 21,250

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EDWIN LONG R.A. (BRITISH, 1829–1891)
The Daughter of Bethlehem
signed with monogram and dated '1886' (lower right)
oil on canvas
53 1/8 x 35 3/8in. (135 x 90cm.)

Purchased from the artist by Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, 18 December 1886, no 4226.
Purchased from the above by J.E. Walker Esq., 13 May 1887.
Purchased by Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, 30 June 1888.
Purchased from the above by James Williamson M.P., 21 July 1891.
Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 28 November 1930, as A Water-Carrier of Bethlehem.
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 26 November 1986, lot 31, as The Daughter of Bethlemhem.
with Pyms Gallery, London.
Purchased from the above by the parents of the present owners.

Specialist note


This picture was one of a series of twenty commissioned by the London dealers Agnew's to celebrate the Royal Jubilee of Queen Victoria. Various Daughters of Empire were depicted in their national costumes. These included Aden; Bethlehem; India; Wales; Australia; Canada; Cyprus (Ancient: Love's Messenger, and Modern); Egypt; England: the Parson's Daughter, The Violet, The Rose (a portrait of Princess May of Teck, later Queen Mary, wife of King George V), The Primrose, The Little Sister of the Poor; Ireland; Jamaica; Malta; Scotland and Trinidad.
When describing the present lot, Mark Bills notes that it was exhibited in 1887 with the following verse:
Now on these steps worn smooth by countless feet,
Young Arab maids at eve are want to meet,
Their fair heads bearing pitchers, and the hands,
Wreathing the well's dark sides with flowery bands.
(M. Bills, Edwin Longsden Long RA, London, 1998, p. 155)