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

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

¹Gns – abbreviation for guineas. A guinea was 21 shillings (1 pound and 1 shilling). Christine made a point of listing all her sales in guineas instead of pounds as she needed that extra shilling. In the following year, 1971, the English currency was decimalized into pounds and pence (100 pence to the pound). 100gns in 1970 is the equivalent of about £2,000 in 2024.