Beschreibung:

George Chinnery  
British 1774-1852- 
Portrait of Margaret Sophia Wood and her sister Mary, full-length, seated in a landscape, wearing white dresses and coral necklaces; 
oil on canvas, 127.2 x 101.6 cm. 
Provenance: 
By descent to Margaret Wood's grandson, Basil Wood Bourne, Leintwardine, Shropshire, by 1957. 
Anon. sale, Christie's, Hong Kong, 25 October 1993, lot 1229, where purchased by the present owner. 
Private Collection, UK. 
Exhibited: 
London, Arts Council Gallery, George Chinnery 1774-1852, 21 August - 21 September 1957, no. 7. 
Note: 
Chinnery travelled to Chennai (Madras) in 1802, and from there to Kolkata (Calcutta), where he established himself as the pre-eminent portraitist of the British community in India, before moving to Macau, where he was based between 1825 until his death in 1852. 
The present portrait appears to have been painted between 1812 and 1825, during the artist's time in Calcutta, as it depicts Margaret Sophia Wood (1810-1899) and her sister Mary (1811-1858), the daughters of Mrs Margaret Elizabeth Wood, nee Templeton, (1789-1879) and Henry Wood (1782-1871), who were based in Calcutta until 1829. The latter's portraits were sold at Bonhams, London, on 3 November 2015 (lot 50), and depict the present sitters' mother, Margaret Elizabeth, wearing a white dress and coral necklace, matching that of her daughters.