Ninette

William Lee-Hankey (often rendered as Lee Hankey) (1869-1952)  was a British painter, printmaker and book illustrator. He specialised in landscapes, character studies and portraits of pastoral life, particularly in studies of mothers with young children such as We've Been in the Meadows All Day (c. 1904, Christchurch Art Gallery). 

While as a painter, Lee-Hankey was associated with the Newlyn School, his etchings are of particular significance here. Having worked at the Etaples art colony from 1904, he maintained his studio there despite the outbreak of war in 1914, and went on to make etchings of local people which sometimes developed from his paintings. They gained him a reputation as 'one of the most gifted of the figurative printmakers working in original drypoint during the first thirty years of the 20th century'. (Campbell Fine Art) 

Ninette is an accomplished example of Lee-Hankey's signature mother-child works; almost certainly Ninette is the name of the focal point of the etching, the little girl. And equally certain is that with such a name, she is from Etaples rather than England. Note the relatively rough hands of the mother; this is a plausibly tender depiction of ordinary people, with excessive sentimentality kept admirably in check.

See: Wikipedia, 'William Lee Hankey', https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Lee_Hankey

Dr Mark Stocker   Curator, Historical International Art    May 2018