Provenance:
- Jeremy Maas
- Private Collection

Sir William Quiller Orchardson studied at the Trustee’s Academy in Edinburgh when he was only fifteen years old. He quickly became an exquisite draughtsman and in 1862 moved to London, shortly followed by his friend John Pettie. The two artists shared a studio and living space in 37 Fitzroy Square, later to become Ford Madox Brown’s house.
In 1870, just before he began A Hundred Years Ago Orchardson Left London for Venice where he was inspired by the warm rich harmony of Venetian painting and the luminous glazes of medieval Italian painting. This inspired a series of fantastic large oils which he sent to the Royal Academy the following year including Queen of the Swords and Conditional Neutrality. Many critics of the day were to comment on his fineness of tone and colour and the coherence of these tones. In the Art Journal of 1894, R.A.M Stevenson commented: He is connected with truth by drawing chiefly; his colour, tone, air and light are many degrees removed from an interest in reality.
Walter Armstrong in his 1895 biography of the artist describes how he exhibit the most reticent colour harmonies to the simplest arrangement of figures, to the most self-contained and readily comprehensible themes.

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