Portrait Of A Young Red-haired Girl, Dated 1867 By John Harris Valda Senior (1835-1881)

Portrait of a Red-Haired Girl, dated 1867By JOHN HARRIS VALDA Senior (1835-1881)Large 19th-century Pre-Raphaelite portrait of a red-haired girl, oil and gold leaf on canvas, by Joh Harris Valda Senior. A portrait of excellent quality and in excellent condition, depicting the head of a young girl with flaming hair, the curls of which are swept by a gust of wind. Typical of the early Pre-Raphaelite movement. Signed and dated lower right. Presented in a classical gilt reeded frame.Dimensions: 69.5 x 81.3 cm approximately, framedArtist BiographyJohn Harris Valda is almost completely unknown to art historians. Little is known of his life: he studied at the Sass Academy, had five children, lived part of his life in Austria, and returned to England in 1871. His son, John Harris Valda Junior, the future noted black and white illustrator, was born in 1874. Valda studied at the Sass Academy alongside John Everett Millais, and it is possible that this early encounter influenced his art towards Pre-Raphaelitism, evident in this painting. Following the remarkable innovations of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in the late 1840s and early 1850s, several painters came under their influence in the following years. Valda was clearly one of them. The almost obsessive attention to detail in the eyes and skin tones of this sitter strongly recalls the early work of William Holman Hunt. The treatment of the hair is also reminiscent of Hunt and the meticulous Frederick Sandys. Valda's exact place in the mid-19th century and the work he knew and admired remain a matter of speculation for now. As more of his work is revealed in the coming years, we will better understand his place in the canon of British art.