William Margetson was a painter, illustrator and designer. He worked as a drawing instructor in London but spent much of his life at Wallingford in Berkshire. Margetson exhibited widely in British galleries and at the Royal Academy from 1885. Though popular during his lifetime, very little of Margetson’s work remains in public collections.

In his early years Margetson produced black and white illustrative work in line and wash. His later work, for which he is better known, consists of portraits and literary, religious and classical subjects in oil and watercolour. This painting is typical of his work: a large scale image of a pretty girl alone. In this religious work, the beautiful model is bathed in a warm, spiritual light.