Portrait miniature, Mrs Jean Elizabeth MaccGwire (born Adair), by Lucy MacDonald, watercolour on ivory, ca. 1919

Portrait of Mrs Jean Elizabeth MccGwire (born Adair) (1889-1956), c.1919. Oval miniature, half-length of a woman turned fully to her right wearing a white decollete dress and pearl necklace, her fair hair in a chignon. Sky background. Signed L.W. MACDONALD. Inscribed JEAN ELIZABETH / MccGWIRE wife of / JOHN EDWARD MccGWIRE / DAUGHTER OF HENRY / BENJAMIN ADAIR AND JANE / LAW ADAIR (Nee McEWEN) / PAINTED by Lucy MACDONALD / IN LONDON in about 1919 when Mrs MccGwire was / about 28 or 29 / Mother of John AdairRA / Brian Walter and Jean Mary / Leicestershire Regv:

Given by C. S. Turner

Item Provenance: Provenance: Miss J.M.M. MccGwire (daughter of the sitter); bequeathed to C.S. Turner.

Historical significance: A letter on RP 82/1053 (relating to a miniature of the same sitter as in this miniature) from Mary MccGwire 16th September 1982 notes "Lucy Macdonald. Wife of W Alister Macdonald, Water colour Artist. 50 Penywern Road, Earl's Court, London SW5". I wrote to the Secretary of the Royal Society of Miniature Painters Sculptors and Gravers to see if he could produce any information from his records but he replied saying that owing to very unfortunate circumstances their records were lost so that they only have Catalogues of the Society's exhibitions for the last 20 years which is after Lucy's death, but adds "All that is really known here is that she was a highly respected miniature portrait painter whose work was much in demand in her lifetime". I found some of her works listed on page 79, vol:V of the "Royal Academy Exhibitions 1905-1970... I remember her working in the Arlington Galleries which used to be in Bond Street, during the early 1930s."

This portrait miniature bears an inscription that gives details of the sitter. It reads, ‘Jean Elizabeth/ MccGwire wife of / John Edward MccGwire/ Daughter Of Henry/ Benjamin Adair And Jane / Law Adair (Nee McEwen) / Painted by Lucy MacDonald/ In London in about 1919 when Mrs MccGwire was / about 28 or 29 / Mother of John Adair RA / Brian Walter and Jean Mary / Leicestershire Regv:’. Jean Elizabeth MccGwire was born in 1889 and died in 1956. The V&A holds another miniature of her (P.45-1982). This was painted in 1897 when she was aged about eight.

P.46-1987