This early 20th-century oil painting by English artist John Falconar Slater (1857-1937) depicts a rustic cottage interior with an elderly lady reading. Slater was an accomplished, Royal Academy exhibited, painter of landscapes, seascapes and scenes.Sitting quietly in her favourite chair by the window, she’s quite absorbed by the pages of a book - a novel perhaps? From her vantage point, there’s a view through to the garden, via a windowsill housing a pot of radiant blooms. It’s probably someone he knew well.Born in Newcastle upon Tyne, Slater’s route into art was a rather unconventional one but, despite this, he became one of the foremost British impressionists of his generation. His early years were spent in gainful employment as a bookkeeper for his father’s milling business. But before long, he sought independence and riches by travelling to the lucrative diamond fields of South Africa. Here, he might’ve conceivably stayed but, following a fierce storm, his enterprise was de...