A miniature watercolour of a tall young woman striding to left with two hunting dogs on leashes at her side; with a quiver of arrows on her back and a bow held in her left hand; with DIANA inscribed on a scroll bound within a tree on the left; with a lake and mountains in the distance. With initials, lower left.

Among the many powers attributed to the Roman goddess Diana was the ability to oversee successful conception and safe childbirth. However, in this watercolour she is portrayed in her traditional role as hunter, and an archetype of the competent and free-spirited woman of great appeal to women coming of age after the First World War. Her short hair and skirt accord with both ancient representations of the goddess and with fashionable trends of the 1920s. It is an easy leap of the imagination to see this figure translated into three dimensions as a sleek art deco-style statuette.

For a very different representation of Diana, again in miniature form, see RCIN 927464.