...English barrister Harry Edwards Melvill (1866-1931), a member of the social and artistic circles in France and England at the turn of the last century. Oxford-educated, Melvill worked for British intelligence during the First World War. His long-time partner was the actor and playwright Cosmo Gordon-Lennox, and he counted amongst his friends both Oscar Wilde and Jean Cocteau. In his later years, he was part of a society set that revolved around the Duchess of Carracciolo at the Villa Olga in Dieppe, the center of a notable expatriate English community. Melvill’s tapered, elegant hands are a prominent feature in the portrait of him painted by Jacques-Emile Blanche. (http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/lot.76.html/2014/175-masterworks-n09275)