[Watson, John Dawson] 1832-1892 :[Thomas Stewart Monkhouse as a young man]

Head and shoulders portrait of the young artist and designer T. S. Monkhouse, taken while he was studying at the Manchester Design School, 1851.

Sylvia Reid, the subject's daughter, maintained that this work was by G. F. Watts, the celebrated English portrait painter. However, another family tradition was that it was by a young artist called Watts, who was a friend and colleague of Monkhouse's at the South Kensington Design School. Monkhouse trained as a designer at this school around 1850.

In 1996 Walter Cook, the donor of the portrait, found a note written by T. S. Monkhouse, dated 1911, in which he stated that the portrait was by his friend John D. Watson and was painted in 1851. This document is now in the Manuscripts Collection. The document also mentions that the frame is an ancient one and that it was regilded in 1905.

Inscriptions: Backing board verso - Thomas Stewart Monkhouse father of Sylvia Reid, painted by Watts R. A.[in ink]

Quantity: 1 oil(s).

Physical Description: Oil on canvas? 242 x 196 mm (sight)

Provenance: By descent to the subject's daughter Sylvia Reid, nee Monkhouse. On her death the painting was bequeathed to her niece, Madeleine Cameron, by that date resident in New Zealand. Madeleine Cameron passed it on to her grandson Walter Cameron Cook.