An Unusual Early 20thC Hand-Painted French Theatre Backdrop c.1915-25 sub-Furniture- Boxes & Luggage The mannequin is has a

The mannequin is has a wonderful decorative look

the whole in un-meddled with order and surviving from the second quarter of the twentieth century

We can only find one reference to a William Hicks

but it is light and not current

This figure was owned and used extensively by the well recognised American artist Franklin Watkins (1894-1972) and is featured in some of his paintings

An Unusual Early 20thC Hand-Painted French Theatre Backdrop c.1915-25 sub-Furniture- Boxes & Luggage The mannequin is has aOrigin: FrenchPeriod: 3rd Republic Provenance: UnknownDate: c. 1915 25Width: 34Height: 67 The large hand painted theatre canvas backdrop, executed in a Bloomsbury Group esque maximalist nave style, upon thick cream cotton twill panels, depicting an androgenous figure holding a book, seated on a large garden urn, to highly stylised swirls and patterns to the background, using hues of blues, reds and blacks, the whole hemmed to upper and lower edges,