John Roddam Spencer Stanhope - Eve Tempted by the Serpent

Watercolour and bodycolour heightened with gilding

59 1/4 x 29 1/4"

signed and inscribed with title and Florence on a label on the backboard

this seems to hasve been painted in the late 1870's. An oil version (now lost) went to the opening exhibition of the Grovesnor Gallery in the spring of 1877 and was well received, notably by Oscar Wilde. A version in tempera was exhibited at the Royal Manchester Institution in 1877 and was awarded a Gold Medal. This may be a later reworking.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Roddam_Spencer_Stanhope

I actually have a sale price for this. At the Sotherby's auction in 1994 the estimate was £60-80,000 but it sold for £160,000!