Inscribed, dated and signed l.l.: Study for St Dorothea/vi.1901/JES further signed and dated (l.l.)

Pencil on prepared paper, 38 by 28.5 cm (15 by 11 ¼ ins)

Provenance: Abbott and Holder

Southall’s tempera painting St Dorothea and Her Two Sisters refusing to Worship the Idol is one of the artist’s most impressive and ambitious works in the medium. Painted at the height of his career between 1901 and 1902, the work was exhibited in the Summer exhibition at the New Gallery that year, later being owned by the prominent Bradford citizen Asa Lingard who lent it to the 1925 show to celebrate twenty five years of the Cartwright Hall there. St Dorothea of Cappadocia was a third century saint, martyred for refusing to renounce her Christianity (re-converting he sisters just prior to their own execution). In his Birmingham catalogue entry on the painting, George Breeze observed: “St Dorothea exhibits the true serenity of saint, only enhanced by the lack of tension resulting from the judge’s command.” (Birmingham Catalogue, p.46, no.C1). These two beautiful and contrasting studies for the central figure of St Dorothea herself bear witness to the mastery of Southall’s portrayal.