Bronze Age Gold from Wales

The figures in the painting are thought to be the artist’s wife, Julie Delance-Feurgard (1859-1892), with their daughter Alice (1888-1973) as a baby, around 1888. Julie had been a student of Paul Delance at the Académie Julian, considered one of the most prestigious Paris art schools, second only to the École des Beaux-Arts which did not accept women. The couple were married in 1886 and Alice was born two years later. Julie became an accomplished artist in her own right but in 1892 tragically died at the age of thirty-two, when Alice was only four. Margaret Davies purchased the painting from Roland, Browse & Delbanco, London in 1958. The fact that Margaret had also been four years old when she lost her own mother gives an extra poignancy to this beautifully intimate painting. The dealers had exhibited a number of Paul Delance’s landscapes the previous year from Alice’s collection.

Two other paintings by Delance, listed in the exhibition, were purchased by Daphne Llewellin of Usk and also bequeathed to the museum. (See Beach with Seated Figures (La Côte déserte) and View from a Hill, Sannois, Seine-et-Oise)