Signed, inscribed and dated l.l.: JES/1913/begun 26.viii.1913

Pencil, 20 by 15 cm (7 ¾ by 6 ins)

Provenance: the artist’s cousin Isabel Harlock and thence by descent

Southall was the only child of Joseph Sturge Southall and Eliza Maria Baker, both parents coming from prominent Quaker families.  His father tragically died shortly after his birth and his mother then returned with her only son to live with her own family in Edgbaston on the outskirts of Birmingham.  Southall considered his 1902 portrait of his mother (now in the collection of Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery) to be his finest work.  The present 1913 drawing of his mother shows her in a similar white lace widow’s cap and wearing the same brooch pinned at her neck.  The Greek lace cap was almost certainly designed by Joseph Southall and worked by his mother who exhibited a number of pieces at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society.