Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, OM, RA (British, 1836-1912)
Portrait study of Mrs Mahala Colton
signed, inscribed and dated 'L Alma Tadema/with a happy new year/to Mrs Mahala Colton/L. 1905' (lower right)
watercolour
16 x 19cm (6 5/16 x 7 1/2in).
Footnotes:
Provenance
Private collection, UK.

The sitter of this intimate study is Mahala Colton (1878-1963), wife of the art dealer Charles Colton whose brother was the sculptor William Robert Colton. William Colton was a member of the Royal Academy and President of the Royal British Society of Sculptors, and a close neighbour of Alma-Tadema in St. John's Wood, London. It can therefore be suggested that the connection between artist and sitter was made through her brother-in-law who would have no doubt known Alma-Tadema personally.

A letter from the artist to Mrs Colton, dated 3 January 1905, reads:

'My Dear Mrs Colton,
I have obeyed your wishes & made a little sketch in your book and wished you under the drawing a happy new year, but now I don't know how to send it to you, as post & parcel delivery might spoil or lose it & the book is too nice for that; so I write to ask you to come and fetch it when you are in town in this neighbourhood or can you suggest another way.
With best compliments of the season
I remain
Yours very truly
L Alma Tadema'