†MAUD GERALDINE MARY CHAMBERS (1872-1969) PORTRAIT OF WINIFRED CLARE ALEXANDRA CHAMBERS

†MAUD GERALDINE MARY CHAMBERS (1872-1969) PORTRAIT OF WINIFRED CLARE ALEXANDRA CHAMBERS, LATER FAIRFAX-CHOLMELEY (D1941) head and shoulders, unfinished, signed, oil on canvas laid on board, 48.5 x 37cmProvenance: The sitter, thence by descent to the present vendor.Maud Chambers, who on the basis of the present beautiful study of her sister was an artist of considerable potential, exhibited only once, at the New Gallery, the chosen venue of the Pre-Raphaelite and Aesthetic artists ( in particular Burne Jones) in 1897. At that time her address was 37 Rosary Gardens, South Kensington. She married in 1899 the Rev John Majoribanks-Egerton, MA (1858-1931) the Rector of Odd Rode, Cheshire. He later converted to Roman Catholicism and was appointed Chamberlain to Pope Pius X. Maud, Winifred and Eleanor's [see lot 872] father William Henry Chambers (1830-1906) was educated at Clare College, Cambridge before moving to the Cote d'Azur. When his daughters were teenagers he moved again in 1885 to Florence, where he devoted the rest of his life to the study of Dante. Such was his expertise that he became widely acknowledged as the leading Dantologist. His highly important collection of 1700 books dating from the 16th century onwards, all relating to Dante, was purchased en bloc from his heirs for Brown University Library, USA in 1912. He died at Moresca and was buried at Fiesole.The sitter married William Henry Fairfax-Cholmeley, third son of Captain T Fairfax-Chomeley, RN, of Brandsby Hall, Yorkshire, a direct descendent of St. Thomas More, in 1898. She translated the Sacramentary-Liber Sacramentorum or Historical and Liturgical Notes on the Roman Missal. This five volume work was published in London between 1924 and 1930 [see also lot 707]