Marjorie Louise Bridgewater(British, active 1926)George Monro, wearing chapeau bras and black velvet suit with silver buttons over white waistcoat, white gloves and grey cloak with black collar, a monacle on a ribbon in his right eye, drapery background; and Mrs Monro, wearing white court gown embroidered with scrolling foliage and blue and pink flowers, her train lined with blue, veil and ostrich feathers in her waved grey hair, elbow-length white kid gloves and feather fan in her left hand, pearl earrings and necklace, a gold watch on her left wrist
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Signed on the obverse M. L. Bridgewater, dated on the reverse June 1926, gilt-metal frames.
Rectangular, 134mm (5 1/4in) high (2)
Footnotes
Although it has not been possible to trace the sitters, it is clear that the present works were painted to commemorate the Presentation at Court of Mr and Mrs George Monro in the summer of 1926.
The rules governing Court Presentation before the Second World War were strict. No divorced woman could be presented and every lady could only be presented by a woman who had herself been presented. Gentlemen eligible for presentation included senior politicians, high-ranking officers in the army and navy, civil servants and members of both the British and Colonial diplomatic corps. Foreigners had to be presented under the auspices of their ambassador.
Queen Mary, to whom Mrs Monro would have made her curtsey at Buckingham Palace, was known to dislike the short skirts which came into fashion in the mid-Twenties, so it is likely that the dress worn here would have reached to the mid-calf, if not the ankles. A headress of ostrich feathers and veiling was de rigeur. A welcome innovation of the inter-war years was the shortening of the formal Court train from eight feet when fully extended from the heels of the wearer to a more manageable eighteen inches.