SIR EDWARD JOHN POYNTER, P.R.A., R.W.S. (BRITISH, 1836-1919)

This picture, and two others of the same dimensions, entitled Reading, and The Knot, were exhibited at the Dudley Gallery as part of a group entitled Three Summer Days. They were each executed between 1870 and 1872. Subsequently, they were set into a drawing room cabinet of carved walnut and pear wood, the upper portion of which was surmounted by statuettes. It was commissioned by Christobal de Murrieta, and designed by Edward Tarver for Messrs Gillow and Co who made it. Tarver was the architect of the Murrieta seat at Wadhurst, East Sussex. The family were Spanish, and made a fortune from trading with Argentina. When Argentina defaulted on bond payments, they lost their money in the 1890s. The panels subsequently appeared at auction, out of the cabinet in 1916. They were then reputedly bought by Sir Hugh Poynter, 3rd Bt, the artist’s second son, who succeeded to his father’s baronetcy on the death of his elder brother. The three pictures were then sold as separate lots at Sotheby's in 1965.