Signed Portrait of a Lady by English Victorian Artist Laurence Koe

A large and beautiful portrait of a sitting lady her hat over one arm holding a bouquet of flowers, the other arm held upward holding a branch of a tree. This original oil on canvas is by the British artist Laurence Koe, (1863-1913), is signed on the lower right and dated 1905.

Lawrence E. Koe was a portrait painter and sculptor. He is listed as living in Brighton when he first exhibited at The Royal Academy in 1891, but by 1894 he had moved to London where he appears to have settled for the remainder of his life. Koe exhibited widely; over twenty times at The Royal Academy, but also at the R.O.I, The Royal Society of Artists in Birmingham and the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool. Most of his exhibited works were portraits, and among his sitters were the wives of fellow artists Harold Speed RP (1872-1957) and Harold Piffard (fl. 1895-1899). In 1896 Koe exhibited “Venus and Tännhauser” at the Royal Academy, now in the permanent collection in the Brighton Museum and Art and he showed a painting of Sappho two years later. He clearly shows the influence of other artists working at the same time, notably Singer Sargent, Arthur Hacker RA (1858-1919) and Herbert James Draper (1864-192) who exhibited The Lament for Icarus (Tate Gallery) in the same year. The painting and the frame have been professionally restored; the canvas is unlined. The back of the frame bears a ” Liverpool 1905 Dicksee and Co” stickler as well as a ‘mysterious’ five pointed red star at the top left hand corner.

Dimensions framed: 55″H (140cm) x 45″W (114cm)