Mother and Children, Day at the Beach

This work won Richard a prize at the Slade in 1926, and was then, according to his sales diary, bought in 1927 by "one of the Wertheimer family for £8". It is the first sale listed in the diary.

Asher Wertheimer, a London art dealer who died in 1918, was a patron and friend of John Singer Sargent, who painted many portraits of the Wertheimer family. Richard added a note to his diary identifying the buyer as "Mrs Mathias", ie. Helena Mathias, one of Asher and Flora Wertheimer's daughters. Helena, we learned from her grandson, passed it on within the family before it was eventually sold on.