Completed Dress and Textiles, Portraits: British 20th C 23 Is this a May Bridges Lee self portrait from 1917 or later?

Is that a part of a date below her signature at the bottom of the painting?

No, but here is the signature close up.

Attached is a photograph of the artist, as it appeared in the edition of Britannia and Eve on Friday 1st February 1929.

Lou Taylor should look at this for fashion-based dating. I think the hair is probably later than 1917 and could be late 1920s.

Here she as seen in the Daily Mirror of Thursday 2nd January 1936.

In 1917 she would have been 33. She might conceivably be that age in this picture, but I expect she was probably older.

As she looks the same age or older in this portrait than she does in the above-referenced photograph from 1929, when she was already 45, it is unlikely that this work dates from any time much earlier than that year.

Kieran, being anything but high-tech myself, I am curious as to how you and others make image composites. Is it some special software or online site that does that for you?

Hi Jacinto,

it is nothing more than taking a series of screen shots (Option-Command-3 on Apple). Start by dragging this Discussion's image onto your desktop. Now open the 1929 photo above and drag it on to the desktop. Open them both, size then + or - and place them beside each other so that their top and bottom horizontals match. Take a screen shot. You should have a composite but with a lot of other desktop clutter surrounding it. Now use the "Take screenshot from selection" option in Preview and crop out the area that you want. Name it and there is you finished composite, no special software and no online sites needed.

I hope that works for you.

Best wishes,

Kieran

Useful guidance. Thank you.

I do it differently on my *very* old PC using basic Paint (generally pre-installed on PCs). It avoids the reduction in quality you get using screen-shots, but looks to be more complex than Kieran's method - getting the size of the images to match is especially fiddly, and involves some arithmetic, so I won't go into it here.

In my view, the short waved hair, quite sleek to the side of the head, the line of the bodice with the shallow low bust line and the waist at natural level are characteristic of the early 1930s. I have just checked through the portraits of young and middle aged women in RA illustrated for 1918, which is the closest in date to the disputed date I have to hand. The vast majority of women still wear their hair long in this period. The fashionable style is softly wavy, but with bulk over the forehead and at the sides of the head. The late Queen Mary represents this style in fossilised form. A simpler current style, found among countrywomen and women in the semi-avant-garde, dresses the hair in a low chignon, taken softly from a centre parting - see George Clausen A Girl in Black 1913 Leeds City Art Gallery, or William Rothenstein, 'Eric Gill and Alice Rothenstein,' c. 1914, NPG. or indeed Duncan Grant's portrait of Vanessa bell in a red dress NPG c.1915/18 in my opinion. When the few avant-garde women did cut their hair short around 1917, they seem to have favoured a STRAIGHT (sorry no italics so must capitalise for emphasis) and boyish 'bob'. This may be represented in W Strang's 'Louise' RA Illustrated 1918, p. 54, and is certainly shown in Roger Fry's various portraits of Nina Hamnet during their short lived affair in 1917 - eg that in the Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery University of Leeds or that in the Courtauld Galleries. So I agree with the other commentators - the hairstyle rules out a 1917 date.

Jacinto, I was in touch recently with Lou Taylor and she was in touch at the weekend saying she was going to look into another case. I have asked for her additionally to review this discussion on fashion-based dating, as you suggested back in March. David

The short bob was unquestionably in fashion in 1917, albeit at the higher levels of society, as can be seen in the attached painting by May B. Lee of Viscountess Northland, as it appeared in the The Gentlewoman of Saturday 21st July 1917. That said, this discussion's self-portrait definitely shows Lee c. 1930 or later.

Jacinto, I work on an iPad and make composites using the very logical pinetools.com website. In the search box in the orange area at the top of the page, I type in either “merge” for a side-by-side composite or “mirror” to flip an image. For a merge, I choose two files and then touch the green “MERGE!” that is at the bottom of the page. Once I have the merged image, I save it as a photo (“png” option above the merged image). Then I “view” it, I press down on the image to select “add to photos”, and then I download it to Acrobat so that I can give it a name.

Thank you, Marcie. That may be simple enough for someone like me.

I am so sorry I missed this first time round. The hairstyle here is waved above the ears in a kind of 'natural' look.This type of waved hair became fashionable at the same time as the smooth sleek mid 1920s look. The style in this portrait lasted into the early 1930s. The crossover garment is no help sadly. My feeling is that this is around 1930.. She would have been 46 then...

see images
-DUCHESS OF ARGYLE , (IN SCHIAPARELLI JACKET) by BROCKENHURST 1931 TATE T12796_9.

- Packers SHAMPOO AD 1924. .. [TTICPAPER.COM]

-Ethel Mary Tiegs,_photo,_1927 WIKEMEDIA.j

Here are Lou Taylor's images.

Lou Taylor has commented via email, 28/09/21 'Yes I would agree with 1929-30'

I have asked Catherine Daunt if she feels this discussion is ready to close and recommend to the Collection.

This lady seems adequately recorded:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_Bridges_Lee

though it might be worth adding '(Lady Stott)' to her identity for the last forty years of her life, albeit her 1936 marriage to the widowed Sir Philip Stott was only about a year given he died in 1937.

Apologies, I have missed this, Catherine Daunt confirmed straight away that she is happy with the recommendation. David