Period

Ernest Board (1877-1934)

The Ladybird

Oil on canvas; signed and dated 1903, inscribed with artist's name and address on the stretcher, labelled (1) Dicksee Liverpool 1903 and (2) Miss Geraldine Smith

28 ¼ x 18 inches

POA

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Further images

Provenance

Samuel White

Exhibitions

Royal Academy, 1903, no. 519;

Liverpool 1903[?];

Bristol Fine Arts Academy, Mr Samuel White's Loan Collection, May 1905, no. 266

Literature

Bristol Magpie, 9 May 1903, p. 4

'...Mr. Ernest Board have positions in the exhibition. The latter contributes a figure subject, entitled "Ladybird!" but there he ends the nursery rhyme. Instead of, "Ladybird! Ladybird! fly away home," Mr. Board would probably sing "fly away" to come appreciative purchasers' gallery.'

Clifton & Redland Free Press, 8 May 1903, p. 2

'Mr. Ernest Board, the young Bristol artist, has again been successful in obtaining a good position on the walls of the Royal Academy for his figure subject, "Ladybird."'

Western Daily Press, 19 May 1905, p. 9

Bristol-born Ernest Board trained at the Royal College of Art and Royal Academy before exhibiting his first picture, a portrait, at Burlington House in 1902. The following year, he submitted this quiet, yet colourful scene of a girl handling a ladybird, inspired by the nursery rhyme 'Ladybird, ladybird'. One reviewer quipped that, 'Instead of, "Ladybird! Ladybird! fly away home," Mr Board would probably sing "fly away" to some appreciative purchasers' gallery.' (Bristol Magpie, 9 May 1903, p. 4)

As the former apprentice of Edward Austin Abbey, Board excelled at painting Pre-Raphaelitic genre and history pictures in vivid tones and sharp detail. In 1908, he was commissioned by Parliament to paint a scene from Tudor history that would be installed in Westminster's East Corridor. His 'Latimer preaching before Edward VI' now hangs alongside five other Tudor scenes commissioned by Parliament by Byam Shaw, Frank Cadogan Cowper, Frank Salisbury Denis William Eden, and Henry Arthur Payne - all Neo Pre-Raphaelites like Board.

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