Dame Ethel Walker DBE ARA, 
British 1861-1951 - 

Study for 'The Four Seasons, Decor n.4'; 

watercolour and ink on collaged paper, 49.5 x 44 cm 

Provenance: 
possibly with Lefevre Gallery, London (blank gallery label attached to the reverse of the frame); 
Fairlie Harmer (1876–1945); 
Phillips, Tuesday 22nd November 1969, Lot 186; 
R. Knight, purchased from the above (according to the invoice and inscription on the reverse of the frame); 
private collection 

Exhibited: 
Empire Art Loan Collections Society, London, no.190 (according to the label attached to the reverse)

Note: 
Fairlie Harmer was a friend and neighbour of Ethel Walker in Chelsea. There are a number of works by the artist in UK public collections including Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, Manchester Art Gallery and the Ashmolean, Oxford. 

The present work is a study for a mural, or 'decoration' as the artist titled them, 'The Four Seasons' now in the collection of Abbot Hall, Kendal. Many of these Walker's decorations feature mythological or allegorical figures, such as the and evoke a female utopia, similar to the imagery of her French contemporary, Marie Laurencin. There are letters in the Tate Archive to Grace English regarding the loan of what is possibly this work for a touring exhibition to Australia and New Zealand, 'British Watercolours 1914-1953'. 

Tate Britain recently had several of these decorations on display until March 2024, including one of her largest paintings, 'Decoration: The Excursion of Nausicaa, 1920', and 'The Zone of Hate, 1914-15'.