Vera Southby (British, 1895-1987) Portrait of a Yunnanese boy, Kunming, Yunnan Province, 1928 signed 'V.SOUTHBY' (lower left), signed and indistinctly dated 'V. H SOUTHBY/28' (lower right) and indistinctly inscribed in pencil (to top right stretcher) oil on canvas 113 x 84.1cm (44 1/2 x 33 1/8in). Footnotes: Provenance With Martyn Gregory, London. The collection of Peter and Nancy Thompson, Hong Kong. With Martyn Gregory, London. Exhibited London, The Royal Academy, 1928. London, Martyn Gregory, An exhibition of the works of Vera Southby (Mrs. Ake Hartman) in China and the Far East (painted in the 1920s, 30s and 50s), 1978, no. 2, catalogue 19 (illustrated on p.4 and on the cover). Vera Southby was born in Cape Town, South Africa, daughter of British parents, the Rev. and Mrs Philip Southby. They lived on the Karoo at Prince Albert, near Cape Town. She returned to England with her family at the age of four and they settled in Somerset. After leaving school, she studied art at Bristol, the London School of Art, the Chelsea Polytechnic, and finally in Rome at The Scuola Britannica. At the London School of Art, she studied under Professor Jean Paul Rosier, a Belgian portrait and figure painter, and Richard Jack and George Belcher. The artist recalls that Thomas Monnington was a pupil there at that time. At the Scuola Britannica she studied under Professor Lipinski for one year in 1921. From 1921 to 1925 she painted extensively on the Continent, North Africa and Persia. After two periods of study in Vienna with Professor Joseph Binder, she left for China. Here she stayed with friends in Kunming. In 1927 the artist married the manager of a well known shipping company and for the next six years spent her time painting beside the Yangtze and at Tientsin and Peking. She left China for Europe for two or three years but returned in 1935 to live in Peking and Shanghai. War between Japan and China broke out and with other Europeans she was interned at Shanghai. After the war in 1946, Vera Southby remarried in Shanghai. She and her husband, Björn Ake Hartman (1905-1977), travelled extensively in the Far East, including to Hong Kong, Vietnam and India. Southby had several solo shows (Shanghai 1929; Alpine Galleries, London 1935; De Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco 1950/51) and exhibited frequently at various institutions: The Royal Academy, The Royal Society of Portrait Painters Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts, Goupil Gallery Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, Manchester City Art Gallery New English Art Club and the Society of Women Artists. During the early 20th century, British influence in Yunnan, though indirect, was significant. The British sought to leverage Yunnan's strategic location adjacent to India and Burma to facilitate trade routes into inland China. This involved ambitious plans to develop a railway network to transport commodities to the east coast. Additionally, British interests extended to developing markets for local products, such as regional teas. These economic objectives were intertwined with broader geopolitical concerns and European competition in the region. By the turn of the century, the British had established consulates in key Yunnan cities, including Simao, Kunming, and Tengyue. These diplomatic outposts served as hubs for trade, diplomacy, and intelligence gathering. In this painting, the young Yunnanese boy, in a flattened hat adorned with tassels, was working in the garden of a British Vice Consul where the artist was staying. This image offers a glimpse into the cultural exchange between the British and the Chinese. This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: AR AR Goods subject to Artists Resale Right Additional Premium. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing