Fete in 18th century costume by a lake

Charles Conder undertook a number of decorative commissions for interiors, and the present work may relate to one of these. Although unsigned, this oval painting on a plywood panel is very closely related to a similar, slightly larger oval panel in a similar frame (36.6 x 46.7 cm, but unclear whether it is on wood or silk), signed and dated 1909, sold at both Sotheby's and Christie's in Australia, titled Fete in 18th century costume. That work shows a similar scene, with the guitar or lute player standing to the right, facing away from the viewer, rather than to the centre right, facing us. 

There is also a perhaps connected canvas of a nude in a landscape in the Atkinson Art Gallery, Southport, and others elsewhere. Neo-rococo decorative schemes for interiors, particularly of chic central London houses, were fashionable in late Victorian and Edwardian England, and Conder undertook several such commissions, a number of them employing oval panels set into wooden room panelling. 

These three ovals by Conder would appear to be related to one such scheme.