Size 24" x 29"
Format Oil on Canvas
Signature Lower Right
Frame Not known
History of the painting
| Date | Auctioneer | Lot | Offer Price | Sale Price |
| 21 Jul 1994 | Sotheby's Melborne | 77 | ||
| 4 Dec 2012 | GFL Fine Art Perth | 69 | ||
| 29 Aug 2016 | mossgreen Victoria | ? | $9,000-15,000 AUD |
Other observations
it seems very likely to me that the child sitting on the floor is Edgar (Harry and Edmee first child) who would have been roughly one year old (born March 1879). It is just conceivable that it might have been Oswald (born April 1880), but I think much more likely it is Edgar as only one of their children is depicted. The elder girl carrying the earthenware jug (a item often included in Harry's paintings) is probably a maid.
A year earlier Harry painted two paintings known as On Mothers Knee and Under Sisters Eye depicting Edgar being held by Edmee and lying in a crib respectively, but as he was the eldest child of Harry and Edmee the title of the second painting is misleading. It is nice to see the progression of Edgar from a child of roughly six months to a slightly older child sitting on the floor playing by the fireplace.
The scene is probably a downstairs room of their house in Earls Court Road London where he and his family were living at the time.
The roughly 25" x 30" size is his favourite size for the years 1878 to 1880, although he later upsized to 28" x 36" for the majority of his paintings from 1886 onwards.