Evy

In the 1870s the young Eveleen Tennant was much admired for her beauty and through her mother's London salon frequented some of the best-known artists and writers of the day. The ambitious Mrs Tennant, determined to secure her the best possible match, had her lovely daughter's portrait taken many times over, most notably by J. E. Millais and G. F. Watts. The painting of her by G F Watts at the Delaware Art Museum was a favourite of the artist. He was equally fond of and protective towards its sitter. But the picture's girlish simplicity, like that of Eveleen herself, is deceptive. Presenting much new research and drawing particularly on the uninhibited manuscript journals of Eveleen's sister Dorothy, Kedrun Laurie tells the history of the picture and that of the much-pursued Eveleen, who ended by eluding reductive definitions of her to become an independent photographer, a splendid portraitist in her own right.