Lucy (née Potter), Lady Roscoe (1840-1910)

HAVING HIS PORTRAIT TAKEN, 1888. Albumen print mounted to presentation card, image size 267 x 237mm, card size 298 x 267mm, calligraphic title in lower margin with printed attribution to Lady Roscoe lower right margin and 'Silver Medal Class 7 No.246 lower left margin, competition details to verso reading 'CLASS VII / OPEN TO LADIES ONLY / Two Prizes for the best and second best Photographs, the negative of which has been taken and developed by a Lady Photographer without any assistance. / MEDALS - SILVER AND BRONZE', annotated in unknown hand in pencil upper left '1886, Lon. Stereo. Co. Am Phot. Exh'

Lady Roscoe (née Potter), was the aunt of Beatrix Potter, author and illustrator of the 'Peter Rabbit' books. In the 1890s, Beatrix would visit with Lady Roscoe and her husband, Sir Henry Roscoe, at their home Woodcote Lodge, Surrey, where her aunt and uncle nurtured her interest in natural science; Beatrix gifted her aunt the watercolour, pen, and ink drawing The Rabbit Christmas Party: The Arrival (c. 1892), most recently exhibited in Beatrix Potter: 'drawn with design' at the Victoria & Albert Museum, 2019.