A highly appealing genre painting of a young girl holding flowers by Jane Maria Bowkett. The girl is posed in a wild flower meadow in front of a wooded area and wears a white lace dress with a pink sash. On her head is a yellow straw hat decorated with white feathers and a ribbon. She is shown gripping the brim of her bonnet with one hand whilst holding a posy of flowers in the other. The girl bears a resemblance to the models featured in some of the artist's other paintings and could well have been a family member.

Jane Maria Bowkett was a figure and genre painter born in Poplar, London on 17 September, 1837, the eldest child of Thomas Edward Bowkett and Jane Bowkett (nèe Watkinson). The family lived at East India Road where he father practiced as a surgeon, later becoming a doctor and was involved in the Chartist movement. Three of her sisters, Eliza Martha Bowkett (1839-1867), Jessie Undine Bowkett (1861-1886) and Leila Matilda Bowkett (1853-1924) also became artists.

She attended the Government School of Design (now Royal College of Art) and in 1858 began her exhibiting career at the Society of Female Artist. In 1860, she started exhibiting at the British Institution and a year later made her debut at the Royal Academy and Royal Society of British Artists. As well as exhibiting in London, she also exhibited more widely at the Birmingham Society of Artists, Royal Scottish Academy, Bristol Academy of Art and the Brighton Art Society. Most of her paintings were genre scenes featuring woman and children in a mixture of both interior and landscape settings. Her work also included a number of beach and coastal paintings.

She married the still life and landscape artist Charles Stuart on 7 February, 1862 at All Saints Church in West Ham. Although married, she continued exhibiting under her maiden name. The couple spent the first years of their married life living in Stepney Causeway where they started a family. One of their sons Charles Edward Gordon Stuart also became an artist. From 1867 she lived in Gravesend, Kent with her husband’s family but by 1880 had moved back to London where she lived at 18 Melbury Road, Kensington. Having both achieved success, they were able to purchase a new house, ‘Hermitage’ in West Hampstead in 1884, which had a large studio.

She remained at Hermitage until her death on 1 June, 1891 and was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery. Examples of her paintings are held by Aberdeen Art Gallery and Barrow-in-Furness Town Hall.

© Benton Fine Art