Portrait of ‘serene beauty’ that foreshadows tragic love affair
Carter-Wood showcased in the dappled sunlight. Carter-Wood, a painter herself, had been one of a group of bohemian twenty-somethings spending time in Lamorna Cove in Cornwall.
Christie’s described the painting as a “harmony in blue”, “the most sympathetic rendering of the beautiful young art student in happy times as she addresses her unseen friends”.
Her life did not, however, remain as happy. Despite marrying Munnings in 1912, she remained in Cornwall while he travelled in search of fame and fortune as an artist.
Neglected, she went on to grow close to Evans, a young captain in the Monmouthshire Regiment who had joined their circle of friends after working as a land agent nearby.
In 1914, amid rumours that she had fallen pregnant by him, Carter-Wood committed suicide.
The story was brought to life in Jonathan Smith’s novel
later adapted into a film starring Dan Stevens and Dominic Cooper.
The painting, initially kept to CarterWood’s family, was passed by them to Evans along with several other works featuring his lover.
“This is the time when she was really falling in love with Munnings,” said Brandon Lindberg, head of Victorian pictures at Christie’s. “Harold Knight was very fond of her, and may have held a candle for Florence. She was also growing close to Gilbert Evans.
“It’s an incredibly romantic portrait, with the additional frisson of what was happening in their real lives.” The portrait is now known to have been the study for Knight’s larger 1911 work,
of Carter-Wood, Laura Knight – the artist’s wife – and two other models. itself was rediscovered at Christie’s in 2009, on the back of a Laura Knight painting.