434 - Mark Lancelot Symons,

Mark Lancelot Symons, British 1887-1935- Venus in a Cave; pencil, pen and watercolour on paper, signed 'Mark Symons' (lower left) and inscribed '26 Venus in a Cave' (lower right), signed and inscribed ‘Venus in a Cave Mark Symons' verso, 18.2 x 27 cm., with a further portrait study of an elderly woman in profile, indistinctly inscribed ‘Susan Judsen[?]’ (upper right), mounted on a separate sheet and held within the reverse of the frame, 32 x 22.5 cm. Provenance: Private Collection, UK. Note: Symons was part of an artistic family, as the son of William Christian Symons (1845-1911), and with his family friends including James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), John Singer Sargent (1856-1925), and Hercules Brabazon Brabazon (1821-1906). He studied at the Slade between 1905-09, but, upon deciding to pursue his calling of becoming a priest, painted infrequently until 1924. Upon meeting his future wife, Symons turned to painting full-time, and went on to exhibit at the Royal Academy from 1927 until his death in 1935.