It was a frequently reproduced image of chocolate box sweetness... but an oil painting by a Great Yarmouth-born artist has failed to sell at auction in New York.

Charles Burton Barber's A Secret Place features a little girl in sumptuous surroundings delving into a hiding place known only to her and her conspiratorial canine com- panion.

It is the kind of sentimental scene that won him many admirers, including Queen Victoria who elevated him to court painter and trusted him to paint her favourite animals and people.

His works also had commercial appeal and were often used in soap advertisements, gracing chocolate boxes, biscuit tins, jigsaws, and place mats.

The painting was among those he finished shortly before his death at the age of 49, and was expected to fetch between £118,000 and £144,000 at Christie's in Rockefeller Plaza yesterday, but it failed to catch the bidders' attention.

Barber died from complications related to diabetes on November 27, 1894, after an impressive career.

He specialised in scenes of children with animals and from 1866 to 1893 exhibited 32 works at the Royal Academy, winning many prizes and a reputation as one of England's finest animal painters.

During this period Queen Victoria and Prince Albert commissioned the artist to paint pictures of their grandchildren and favourite pets.

When Barber died, Queen Victoria sent a representative to his funeral, with a wreath bearing the message: 'A mark of admiration and regard from Victoria R.I.'

Harry Furniss, Barber's biographer and close friend, said Barber was 'a delightful companion, the gentlest and truest of friends and the sweetest-natured man that ever held a brush'.

Charles Burton Barber, son of Great Yarmouth printer and bookseller Charles Barber, was born at The Quay, Great Yarmouth, on March 24, 1845.

In its obituary of Barber, headlined Death of a Famous Yarmouth Artist, the Norwich Mercury said: 'The Queen was one of Mr Barber's best patrons. He painted hundreds of pictures for her and had many interviews with her.

'He often went to Windsor or Osborne and Her Majesty always came into the room where he was at work and had long talks with him, showing great knowledge of dogs and how to pose them.

'Mr Barber happened to be at Osborne the very April Lord Beaconsfield (former prime minister Benjamin Disraeli) died.

'The Queen had fields full of primroses and every day she sent a basket to Beaconsfield and to her family abroad. She asked Mr Barber to paint a picture of the primrose fields, which he did rather unwillingly as flowers were not his forte.

'But the Queen was delighted with the result, placed the picture in the panel of her bedroom door at Windsor and gave the artist a signed portrait of herself in exchange.'

The present Queen owns 30 paintings by Barber.

In 1877, Barber was paid 10 guineas (£10.50p) for a painting of Princess Beatrice's dog, Watts.

When he died in 1894, he left £383 sixteen shillings and sixpence in his will.

In recent years, the value of Charles Burton Barber's work has soared. The current world auction record is £322,400, paid at Christie's in London on June 7, 2007, for an 1893 oil painting called In Disgrace, probably his most famous work.

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