Attributed to Johann Zoffany, RA, 
German 1733-1810- 
The Strawberry Girl, traditionally...

Attributed to Johann Zoffany, RA, 
German 1733-1810- 

The Strawberry Girl, traditionally identified as Sarah Margaret Edwards (c.1771-1858); 

oil on canvas, 77 x 64.8 cm. 

Provenance: 
By descent from Sarah Margaret Edwards to her nephew, Rev. Samuel Valentine Edwards (1852-1906); 
Thence by descent to H. Valentine Baker; 
Their sale; Christie's, London, 27 April 1934, lot 31, as 'J. Zoffany, R.A.'. 
Mrs S. Maydon, Bristol, by 1970. 
Anon. sale, Christie's, London, 7 July 2023, lot 204. 
Private Collection, UK. 

Literature: 
'Conversazione of the Crystal Palace Fine Arts Club', Norwood News, 23 December 1882, p.6, as 'Sir Joshua Reynolds'. 
Lady Victoria Manners and G.C. Williamson, 'John Zoffany, R.A.', London, 1920, Appendices, pp.271 and 314. 

Exhibited: 
London, British Institution, 1863, no.119, as 'Johann Zoffany R.A.' (lent by Rev. V. Edwards). 
London, Crystal Palace Fine Art Society, December 1882, as 'Sir Joshua Reynolds'. (lent by Rev. V. Edwards). 

Note: 
The present work is a particularly charming example of the 'fancy pictures' which emerged as a popular genre amongst 18th-century British portraitists including Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) and Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792), as well as Zoffany, with Reynolds himself treating the subject of 'the Strawberry Girl' in his painting of the same title now in the Wallace Collection [no.P40]. 

Sarah Margaret was the daughter of Samuel and Sarah Edwards. Her precise date of birth is not known, but she was baptised in 1771 in the parish of St Clement Danes. The family lived at 5 Beaufort Buildings on the south side of the Strand. Samuel Edwards was a successful wine merchant and man of artistic tastes. He owned William Hogarth's painting 'The Bench' (Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge no.727) for a time, for example, and indeed he and his wife Sarah were also painted by Zoffany. Sarah married a Hugh Totty, who like her nephew, Rev. Samuel Valentine Edwards, was a clergyman. They died within seven months of one another, and a brief entry in 'The Gentleman’s Magazine' recorded that Hugh had been chaplain to King George IV as well as rector of Etchingham and vicar of Fairlight, both in Sussex.