Annie I’Ons (1864-1919) was the granddaughter of the artist, Frederick Timpson I’Ons. Marion Arnold, in her book Women and Art in South Africa, says the following:

"Annie I’Ons learnt the rules of composition and methods of painting practised by her grandfather, who himself had had only a brief training in London before arriving in Grahamstown in 1834. Annie I’Ons began her artistic career by working on simple landscapes blocked out by her grandfather and graduated to producing copies of his popular paintings. Initially her painting was indistinguishable from her grandfather’s late work, which bore the signs of his deteriorating eyesight. The similarity in styles, exacerbated by confusion over signatures, has led to problems of identification. 

This lot is a copy of the painting Chiefs in Council at the Kariega River: Sandile, Sarhili, Siwani, The Witchdoctor Damo, Anta “Umgoongo” and Xhoxho, by Frederick Timpson I’Ons, the original of which is at the Albany Museum in Grahamstown.