James Jebusa Shannon (British, 1862–1923) Kitty and the Silver Ship

Exhibited "Seeking Beauty: Paintings by James Jebusa Shannon," Debra Force Fine Art Inc., New York; New York, 2014. Literature New York, Debra Force Fine Art, Seeking Beauty: Paintings by James Jebusa Shannon, 2014, pp. 38-9, no. 11, illustrated. Note The present portrait depicts the artist's eldest daughter, Kitty (1887-1974) holding a silver ship, which can also be spotted in other contemporary works by the artist such as The Silver Ship (circa 1907, formerly in the Forbes Collection of Victorian Pictures) and Flora and the Silver Ship (1922, unlocated), which features the artist's niece, Flora Cartwright. Unlike the other two works, Kitty and the Silver Ship was never exhibited and remained close to the artist (in fact , it stayed in the family for a long time after his death) as a personal memento of the artist's first daughter holding an important family heirloom. The object was so meaningful that Kitty would pose again next to it in a highly dramatic photograph of 1933, in which the silver nef casts its imposing shadow on the background wall. Just as in the photograph, Kitty appears slightly absent and detached in the portrait. As Debra Force notes: "she glances out of the pictorial space with a look of youthful solemnity, an expression that imbues the image with a sense of nostalgia, as if this were Shannon's farewell to the child as she entered womanhood." Shannon would go on to produce one last portrait of his daughter the following year, Black and Silver, now at the Royal Academy.

Provenance

The Artist

Lady Florence Shannon

By descent to Kitty Shannon Keigwin, the Artist's daughter.

By descent to Julia Gibbons, the Artist's granddaughter.

Estate of Julia Gibbons to the present owner.