Oil on canvas, inscribed on the top stretcher "Patricia Preece Moor Thatch Cookham Berks 'Anna with a Hairbrush' / 40 quid," retaining a James Bourlet & Sons, Ltd. paper label on a side stretcher, housed in an attractive silvered frame.

24.25 x 20 in.

Deaccessioned from the Bayley Art Museum, Charlottesville, Virginia in 1997

One of the lesser known, but no less interesting, members of the Bloomsbury Group, Patricia Preece is known for her sensitive portraits of women. She was involved with fellow artist Dorothy Hepworth who is credited with creating many of the works signed by Preece. In 1937 she married Stanley Spencer. During the 1930s Preece's paintings, or more likely Hepworth's, were bought by Virginia Woolf, Augustus John and Kenneth Clark and successful exhibitions were staged at the Lefevre and Leger Galleries in London.

$1,000 - 2,000