A wonderful portrait of an elderly woman reading a newspaper by Haynes King. The woman is pictured sat in an armchair by the side of a fire. She is posed wearing glasses with a white cap on her head and a red shawl around her shoulders. To the left, a sewing basket and knitting can be seen on top of a small table covered in a green patterned cloth. The artist’s placement of the figure in a humble interior serves to emphasise the woman’s intellectual refinement.

Haynes King was a genre painter who was born in Bridgetown, Barbados in 1831. At the age of 23 he came to England where he studied at Leigh’s Academy and became a notable genre figure painter. He started exhibiting at the Royal Society of British Artists from 1857 and became a member in 1864. He also exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy, British Institute, New Watercolour Society, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, Royal Institute of Oil Painters and elsewhere from 1855-1904.

He was recorded as living in Victoria Road, Kentish Town in 1855 and shared a house with the artist Thomas Faed (1826-1900) who had a great influence on his style. He married Annie Elizabeth Wilson (née Preston) a widow, on 14 August 1866 and they lived at 12 Albert Street in Camden. By 1881, they had moved to a short distance away to 7 North Villas.

After the death of his wife in the late 1880’s, he went to live with the artist Henry John Yeend King (1855-1924) (no relation) and his family. He moved with them a couple of times before settling at 103, Finchley Road in 1896. In early 1904, his health began to deteriorate rapidly which sadly led to him ending his own life on 17 May, 1904.

King’s works usually depict women involved in small domestic incidents in humble interiors, although he did produce a series of paintings of young women in idyllic landscapes. His work can be found in many art galleries and museums including the Atkinson Art Gallery, Beverley Art Gallery, Laing Art Gallery, Leeds Art Gallery, New Art Gallery Walsall, Victoria Art Gallery (Bath) and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

© Benton Fine Art