Museum quality genre scene in interior with a little girl reading a book (probably daughter of the painter) was executed in the middle of 19th century and due to close similarities was attributed to the hand of English portrait painter William Charles Thomas Dobson RA RWS (1817 – 1898).  Identical reading  child portrait by Dobson can be see on our last image.

Dobson was born in Hamburg, the son of the merchant John Dobson, who had married in Germany. The family came to England in 1826, and Dobson was educated in London. He studied in the British Museum, and was taught by Edward Opie, nephew of John Opie. In 1836 he entered the Royal Academy Schools, and was instructed by Charles Lock Eastlake.
Through Eastlake's influence Dobson obtained a post in the government school of design established in the old Royal Academy rooms at Somerset House. In 1843 he became head-master of the government school of design in Birmingham, resigning in 1845, and went to Italy, where he spent most of his time at Rome. Moving on to Germany, he was impressed by the Nazarene school of that time. On returning to England he took up religious painting.
Dobson was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy on 31 January 1860, and an academician in January 1872. He was a member of the Etching Club, founded in 1842. In 1870 he was elected an associate of the Royal Watercolor Society, of which he became a full member in 1875. He remained a constant exhibitor, both at the Royal Academy and at the Royal Watercolor Society, contributing about a hundred and twenty pictures to the former and about sixty to the latter. He was appointed a British juror for the Exposition Universelle, Paris in 1878 and was represented there by 3 watercolors. He became a retired academician in 1895, and died at Ventnor on 30 January 1898.
WorkEdit
Dobson exhibited portraits, and The Hermit, a subject from Thomas Parnell's poem, at the Royal Academy Exhibitions of 1842–45. The Young Italian Goatherd, painted in Italy, was at the exhibition of 1846. He painted numerous scriptural subjects, at first in oils, later in water-colors also, which caught the vogue for sentimentality, and were popularized by engraving.

 Literature:  artist lexicons by Thieme/Becker; Saur; Bénézit.

Inscription: unsigned.

Technique: oil canvas, laid down on cardboard. Luxuriousy gold-plated frame.

Measurements: unframed  w 15 1/3" x h 12"( 39 x 30,5 cm); framed 21 1/4"  x  17 7/8"(54 x 45,5 cm).

Condition:  in very good condition