Half length portrait of Lady Frances Maxwell wearing a red velvet coat
Oil on canvas (unlined)
Signed indistinctly lower-right
Enclosed in the original Watts frame
Provenance: By family descent from the sitter
Maria Brooks (1837-1916) was a Victorian portrait and genre painter. She exhibited 33 works at the Royal Academy and 29 at Suffolk Street between 1873 and 1890. Her address was given as the King’s Rd., Chelsea. Other Irish portraits by the artist are images of Major Donnelly and Marie, daughter of Mitchell Henry (1826-1910) of Kylemore Abbey, Connemara.
Lady Frances Dorothea Maxwell was born Frances Synge at Glanmore Castle, Co. Wicklow. She was the only daughter of Francis Synge MP and was the Aunt of the Irish playwright, John Millington Synge (1871-1909). She married Sir Peter Benson Maxwell (1817-1893) of Birdstown House, county. Donegal. He was a lawyer who was called to The Bar in 1841. He was the Recorder of Penang from 1856 to 1866 and the Recorder of Singapore between 1866 to 1871. From 1866 to 1871 he was Chief Justice of the Straits Settlements. The family estate at Birdstown consisted of 4,516 acres. They held a further 1,100 acres in county Clare. Their London town house was situated in Stanhope Gardens.

Dimensions: 44 x 34 inches (112 x 86 cm.)