Congratulations to the Lady of Melford Hall on her new kitchen, and to the National Gallery of Victoria on acquiring another excellent painting by Emma Soyer. Two seemingly unrelated events, which can now be conclusively linked together.

I saw the painting for the first time in late 2024, in the early stages of the Soyer project. I seem to remember a valuation of 1500 pounds and an attribution to the “English School.” I saw it for a second time in June last year hanging uncomfortably close to the private sales department at Christie’s. Presumably from where it has now found its way to Melbourne.

My sources [1] tell me that plans for the kitchen are well-underway and will include Basque style retractable grills, as well as a communal oven for the good folk of Sudbury. Alexis Soyer himself would have been proud. But I don't mean to be flippant. It’s an excellent result for Emma Soyer, as well as impressive foresight by Mrs Krystyna Campbell-Pretty and the NGV, who were quick to recognise the potential of this mysterious painter.

I’ve mentioned it before, but in a perfect world catalogues would not be written by art dealers, but by historians, shuffling between the dusty libraries of great museums to the quiet solitude of their country seats. But it hasn’t always been an advantage and this isn’t the first (nor will it be the last) painting that we have reidentified, only for it to be delivered to our competitors. I make no complaints, other than to point out that our excitement for Soyer has generally exceeded our interests as dealers.

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[1] Instagram story, 2026 (!)

Though difficult to date with any certainty, The Melbourne painting likely predates the portrait below (1836). Soyer was known to expand her earlier works into double portraits, as in the “Lemon Sellers” (1835) to the “Young Israelites” (1837); and “Young Mariner and Dog” (1833) to “Favourite Pup” (1835).