© Reproduced with permission of the Barrow family
Hortus Inclusus means a private garden, typified here by the tall yew hedges in the background, and was a popular Renaissance theme.
This work is a portrait of Southall's future wife, Anna Elizabeth Baker with her cat. It suggests the atmosphere of an idealised resting place apart from the world.
Provenance
Private collector, 1898; then by descent; Fine Art Society in the 1980s; Alan Fortunoff, New York; Fine Art Society, 2004.