John William Waterhouse - Gathering Summer Flowers in a Devonshire Garden

The present picture can be dated between 1893 and 1910. Waterhouse's sister-in-law Emily, married the landscape painter Peregrine Feeney, who built a house at Baggy Point, Croyde in Devon, after leaving Primrose Hill in 1892. Both Waterhouse and his wife, Esther, were frequent visitors to the cottage in Croyde where he spent time painting, although few examples of his work from this period are in existence today.

The lady depicted in the rose filled garden may be the artist's wife. She bears a resemblance to the portrait of Esther that Waterhouse completed in 1884 which is now in the Sheffield City Art Gallery. It seems feasible that she may have posed for the picture on one of their visits to Devon, although the exact identity of the figure is difficult to ascertain from her features alone.