Portrait of Almina Wertheimer

The sculptor James Havard Thomas was born in Bristol. He studied at the Bristol School of Art, Royal College of Art and at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He practised in London, 1884-9 and in Italy, near Naples, where he also worked at a local bronze foundry, 1889-1906. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1872, the International Society from 1898 and the Society of Twelve from 1908. His first one-man exhibition was held at the Carfax Gallery in 1909. In 1911 he was appointed Assistant Lecturer at the Slade and became Professor of Sculpture there in 1915. A memorial exhibition was held at the Leicester Galleries in 1922. Almina (or Alma) was the fifth daughter of the art dealer Asher Wertheimer. This direct full-face drawing is a preparatory study for Thomas’s 1908 marble bust of her. The companion profile drawing for this work and similar drawings of Mrs Asher Wertheimer and another daughter are all in the collection of the Tate Gallery. Almina is possibly best known for the exotic portrait of her in oriental costume by John Singer Sargent, 1908 (Tate Gallery).