Winged fairy with bubbles

Watercolour and pen on card, 340 x 248 mm, signed lower left and dated 1929, in contemporary silk mount.

An exquisite original watercolour with vivid blue background by one of the masters of the fairy art genre.

Harold Gaze was born in New Zealand in 1884 and studied at art school in London during the First World War. He then moved to Melbourne where he wrote and illustrated a number of books for children. In 1927, after a brief second sojourn in London, he settled in Pasadena, California. In California Gaze worked with Disney and continued to publish. He remained in America until his death in 1963. Many of the details of Gaze’s life have proven elusive to researchers, but his unique and creative children’s stories and delightful imagery remain sought after by collectors.

Note : another earlier version of this watercolour (dated 1924) featured on the cover of Filene’s Women’s Clothes Catalog, Vol. III, No. 6, Winters Fashion Number, 1925.