Baby Jessie

Drawn in pastel on buff paper, this portrait shows Frances Mary Saunders in an olive dress and pale pink wrap seated with her little smiling daughter, Jessie.

The 1882 census shows Edward and Frances Mary Saunders living at 22 Russell Square in London. Aged 76 and 70 respectively, Edward’s occupation is given as a wholesale stationer. Their household also included a footman, a cook and two housemaids.

The portrait is set in a bird’s eye maple frame with a gilt slip. The portrait has some scattered spotting and the frame, now darkened with age, has suffered some old areas of minor loss but none of this detracts from what is a charming and delightful study of motherhood.