Study of a Girl

This well-executed head and shoulders study shows a young girl, perhaps one of the artist’s own daughters, with rosebud lips and a confident gaze, her pretty curls framing her face. Drawn in pencil, the level of detail and technical skill is akin to the work of a professional miniaturist. The portrait is professionally mounted within a later oval giltwood frame.

A label on the reverse names the artist as Frank Stone. The son of a Manchester cotton spinner, Stone was a self-taught artist. Having moved to London to pursue a career in art, he became a successful book illustrator with many of his works being engraved. He exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy and was a close friend of Charles Dickens helping out with theatrical productions and indeed lived in the house in Tavistock Square that was later to become Dickens’ home. Upon his death in 1859, Dickens took Stone’s second son, Marcus, under his wing and was instrumental in securing him work with his publishers as an illustrator.