Mother and daughter by the sea circa 1885. Detail from a watercolour painted in or around 1885 by a Victorian child living in England: May Chatteris Fisher (1874 - 1910), who became a professional artist when she grew up.


Detail from a watercolour painted, as a child, by May Chatteris Fisher (1874-1910), who became a professional artist when she grew up. May did not date this watercolour, but she did sign it on the back, and we have assumed from the style of the picture that she was probably no more than 10 or 11 years old at the time. This means that the painting probably dates from circa 1885. May was born near Manchester in north west England, the second of three sisters. Several paintings and drawings by May as a child feature two or three little girls, whom we have assumed to be May and / or her sisters: Margaret (known as Daisy) born in 1873, and Helen (known as Nellie), born in 1875. As an adult, and after studying at the Manchester Municipal School of Art, May became an accomplished book illustrator and bookplate designer. In 1901 and 1904 she illustrated two books of children’s fairy tales for the publishers Sherratt & Hughes: ‘Ignoramus’ by E. Todd and ‘Pixie’ by Frances Reddaway. In 1902, her works were praised in a survey, published in New York, of female bookplate designers on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1904, May married the established landscape painter, William Smallwood Winder (1869 – 1910), and subsequently signed her work MC Winder.


Size: 5579px × 5580px
Location: Seaside, England
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No

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