Keith Henderson (1883-1982)
What is that Delightful Rose?
Watercolour over pencil heightened with bodycolour
14 3/4 x 10 1/4 inches
Provenance
Fred KochLiterature
Geoffrey Whitworth & Keith Henderson, A Book of Whimsies, published by Dent, London, 1909, illus facing p 2
This is an illustration to a short story by Henderson's friend Geoffrey Whitworth, Nice Feeling on the Part of Two Young Men published in A Book of Whimsies, with other stories of similar eccentricity, in 1909. Two inseparable friends share an apartment with 'an excellent marine view'. Into this idyll arrives a rose sent by a female admirer, 'the lady in yellow alpaca at No. 5'. Suspicion is allayed when the recipient says 'she winked at me once out of a bathing tent. I hold her in very low esteem', and harmony is restored. The figure of one of the men, leaning over the chair, has been painted out by the artist.