Crayon on paper drawing by Frederick Sandys entitled 'Proud Maisie'. Great Britain, 1868.

Bust of a woman with long curly hair looking to viewer's left. She holds her hair in her hand and has a strand in her mouth. The image is drawn on green tinted paper.

Given by Mr H. C. Coaks

The sitter for "Proud Maisie" was Mary Emma Jones, an actress who took the stage name "Miss Clive". Later to become the artist's common-law wife and the mother of his ten surviving children, Mary Emma was especially famous for her luxuriant curly hair." (see Betty Elzea, "Frederick Sandys, a catalogue raisonne" (2001), p.15, and also Cat. no. 2.A.111).
[NB. another version of "Proud Maisie" is in the collection, Museum Number E.1253-1948. This version was formerly in the collection of Lord Battersea.]

NB. A version of this drawing appeared as lot 18 in the 'Stunners: Pre-Raphaelite Art from an American Private Collection' at Christie's on the 16 June 2015.

This is Sandys's most famous representation of the actress, Mary Emma Jones, of which he made at least 13 replicas. She was his mistress and favourite model. The biting of the hair alludes to her troubled sensuality. The drawing was exhibited at the Royal Academy without the later title, which refers to Sir Walter Scott's poem 'The Pride of Youth' from The Heart of the Midlothian (1818). Sandys was a better draughtsman than painter. This example demonstrates his outstanding skill in the medium.

P.7-1933