Although Dorothy Hawksley worked in various media, her most successful works were painted in watercolor and tempera with large areas of flat color and unshaded tone contained within refined outlines. These were influenced by Japanese prints and by the work of her friend Frederic Cayley Robinson. It is likely that the present large watercolor was painted in the 1920s or 1930s when she was at the height of her artistic powers. The woman in this picture bears a resemblance to Hawksley herself and she is known to have included self-portraits in her work.... The same girl was certainly the model for the tempera painting Flora (private collection). John Christian has recently written of Hawksley's love of painting children; 'Dorothy loved drawing children, and there always seemed a poignancy in this since she had none of her own. Her infants are innocent without being cloyingly sentimental'. (http://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/dorothy-webster-hawksley-ri-1884-1970-moth-102-c-gvjnxns2za)