Provenance

This is a well-known study for Langley's important oil painting of 1894 entitled 'Never morning wore to evening, but some heart did break', which is now in Birmingham City Art Gallery. The model was Grace Kelynack, the elderly widow of a Newlyn fisherman. (See Pioneer of the Newlyn Art Colony, p.110). This study had originally been owned by a Mr Jewell, the purchaser of the larger and more detailed finished painting. He had been given the study by an embarrassed Langley after the artist had unsuccessfully tried to buy back the finished work, following an approach by the Chantry Bequest with a view to saving it for the nation. This study had been on loan to Birmingham City Gallery before it was sold at Christies for £24,000 in November 2001.