William Stephen ColemanBritish, (1829-1904)By the Fish PondOil on canvas, signed & dated 1898Image size: 23 inches x 35 inches Size including frame: 30.25 inches x 42.25 inchesA beautiful painting by William Stephen Coleman of a woman with two girls in a semi classical style by a Mediterranean pond. The woman is depicted resting on a terrace with her young daughter asleep on her lap, whilst another child catches goldfish in a bowl. This tour de force would have most likely been painted by Coleman as an exhibition piece.William Stephen Coleman was a figurative painter who was born in Horsham in 1829. He was one of 12 children born to a physician named William Thomas Coleman and his wife Henrietta (n�e Dendy). Three of his siblings Rebecca Coleman (b1837), Helen Cordelia Angell (1847�1884) and George Coleman also became artists, inheriting their artistic talent from their mother�s side of the family. Coleman developed an interest in nature from an early age, producing drawings as a hobby. Despite his ability, he initially followed in his father�s footsteps and trained as a surgeon. However, this proved unsuccessful and by the age of 21 he had turned back to art, later gaining employment with the Dalziel Brothers, a firm of wood engravers who specialised in natural history illustrations.Sometime during the late 1850�s he moved to London where he married his first wife Henrietta Augusta Boultbee in 1858. Around the same time, he began producing illustrations for books; the first of which was entitled �Common Objects of the Country� and published in 1858. He subsequently published two of his own books �Our Woodlands. Heaths, and Hedges� in 1859 and �British Butterflies� in 1860. After the death of his wife in 1860, his sister Rebecca and brother George went to live with him in Garway Road, Paddington. Rebecca would often assist him with the wood blocks for his illustrations.As well as working as an engraver, he also began producing cla...