Featured Painting I researched

I got this painting on Facebook marketplace and I researched it using a few different AI tools and my own research
I thought it was quite interesting to find out about the painter and verify who they were.


The Painting

A romantic bust-length portrait of a young woman with long flowing auburn hair, bare shoulders, cream lace wrap, and red velvet drape against a dark background. Oil on prepared artist's board, in its original, restored gilt frame. Signed and dated on the front "R Oct 1909" (lower right area), with full inscriptions on the reverse.

The Original Inspiration: Angelo Asti

• The composition is based on the work of Angelo Asti (1847-1903), a French painter of Italian descent who worked in Paris.
  
  
• Asti was famous for his romanticised, idealised portraits of beautiful women featuring dramatic flowing hair and rich fabrics.
  
  
• His work was massively popular in early commercial reproduction: postcards, prints, calendars, tins, and advertising. His imagery fed directly into the emerging "pin-up" tradition of the early 20th century.
  
  
• Asti died in 1903, six years before this painting was made, so the copy was almost certainly worked from a print or postcard reproduction.
  
  
• The particular work is ‘Long Haired Lady in Red’
  
  
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The Artist: Winifred Nelly Rowe

• The painting is a copy after Asti, made by a young Australian amateur/student artist.
  
  
• The handwritten inscription on the back states explicitly: "Face by Asti, Drawn & Painted by Winifred Nelly Rowe, On the Beuro, September 1909."
  
  
• The work is dated twice: "September 1909" on the back and the front signature "R Oct 1909," suggesting she began it in September and finished/signed it in October.
  
  
• Her address is written on the back: "Winifred Nelly Rowe, Woodstocke St., Botany, Sydney." No house number is given, which was common practice at the time.
  
  
• Woodstock Street is a street that still exists in Botany.
  
  
• "Miss Rowe" is also written separately near the frame edge, likely a class or teacher's label.
  
  
• A 1940 newspaper funeral notice records Miss Winifred Rowe attending her grandmother Elizabeth Rowe’s funeral in Darlinghurst for a burial in Botany. indicating she remained in the local community, still under her maiden name, some three decades later.
  

The Supplier: W.C. Penfold & Co.

• The faded commercial stamp on the back reads "Prepared Students Academy Boards, W.C. Penfold & Co., 183 Pitt Street, Sydney N.S.W."
  
  
• W.C. Penfold & Co. was one of Sydney's oldest and most prominent stationers and printers, tracing its origins to William Moffitt's business established in 1830.
  
  
• Penfold's was a major supplier of artists' materials to the Sydney public in this era, selling Winsor & Newton oil colours, hog hair brushes, sketchbooks, and prepared canvas and boards.
  

 

Very pre-Raphaelite.

 

I wonder if it wasn't copied by a student as part of a class.

 

Seems very likely.
She says it was painted on the Berou whatever that means
Maybe her beruau? (Desk/table)
At that time botany was a very working class area near the port. So she would have spent quite a bit of money on the frame and materials.

Unfortunately the frame and parts of the painting was overpainted (not restored) when I took it in to have the frame chips repaired
But I was not charged much at all so I guess there's that...

 

I’ve had her before…painted on a plate, or box, or maybe just a small painting or print. I can’t recall which. She’s a popular gal though, often copied.

 

Yeah I've had this for about three years and I've already seen lots of things come up for sale just by coincidence with that image so yes was very copied around that time.