I think my mother painted Old Age because of the relative success of the Victoria painting and because she thought old faces showed lots of character and texture. I am not sure who was the subject as there was just a small photograph and the title as a record in one of her portfolio albums. But for some reason I always had this painting in mind when my mother talked about her grandmother, Grand Bem, a real matriarch by all accounts.

In my mother’s diary there is a single entry on June 21, 1970, “Sold painting ‘Old Age’ 100gns.¹” This was posted the day before she said she was back from doing a commission in the Channel Islands, of her old friend and former bank manager, Mr. Davies’s father. So I think we can infer that probably Mr. Davies bought the painting.

¹Gns abbreviation for Guineas or 21 shillings or 1 pound and 1 shilling. My mother made a point of listing all her sales in guineas instead of pounds as she needed that extra shilling. In the following year, 1971, they decimalized the English currency. 100gns in 1970 is the equivalent of about £2,000 in 2024.