signed and dated 'F. Sandys/1864' (lower left)pencil Unframed: 24.5 x 23.7 cm. (9 5/8 x 9 3/8 in.) Framed: 39 x 39 cm. (15 3/8 x 15 3/8 in.)Provenance:Sale; Sotheby's, Belgravia, 20 November 1979, lot 59;Where purchased by J.S. Maas Gallery, London;Where purchased by the present owner;Private Collection, London. Literature:B. Elzea, 'Frederick Sandys 1829-1904 A Catalogue Raisonné', Woodbridge, 2001, p. 182, no. 2.A.76, illustrated.Notes:Augusta was one of three sisters famous as Pre-Raphaelite models in the 1860s, the other two sisters being Mary Emma Jones and Emelie Eyre 'Milly' Jones. The sisters were from Hull but emigrated to London in about 1862-3. Mary became Sandys' lover in 1867 and bore him twelve children, but they never married. The sisters modelled for artists including D.G. Rossetti, James McNeill Whistler, Frederic, Lord Leighton, Albert Moore, Edward Poynter, Simeon Solomon and Henry Holiday. Ausgusta also modelled on many occasions during the 1860s for Sir Edward Burne-Jones and appears as the musician in 'The Lament',1 the figure in 'Astrologia'2 and 'Princess Sabra, The King's Daughter, St George and the Dragon series'.3 Georgiana Burne-Jones described her as ‘a noble looking girl’ for whom the artist had ‘much regard and respect.’4 Augusta seems to have ceased modelling in the later 1860s, perhaps when she married the designer and architect Frederick Vincent Hart. References1 https://www.eb-j.org/browse-artwork-detail/NzMx 2 https://www.eb-j.org/browse-artwork-detail/NTYw 3 https://www.eb-j.org/browse-artwork-detail/MTUzMA== 4 G. Burne-Jones, 'Memorials of Edward Burne-Jones', London, 1904, p. 302, p. 360