Lot Essay
This unrecorded work would appear to be a fragment of an unfinished painting, although the way in which it is made up about six inches from the bottom, together with the age of the frame, suggest that the cutting down was done at an early date, very likely by Waterhouse himself.
On stylistic grounds the picture clearly dates from the later part of the artist's career, and the forms of the branches and blossom resemble those of the almond tree in Phyllis and Demophoön, a work exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1907 (Anthony Hobson, The Art and Life of J.W. Waterhouse, R.A., 1980, p. 127, pl. 124). On the other hand the pose of the figure is reminiscent of The Flower Picker, a composition which exists in two versions, a watercolour of 1900 (Hobson, op.cit., p. 58, pl. 44) and a contemporary oil sketch (repr. Anthony Hobson, J.W. Waterhouse, 1989, p. 84, pl. 59). The figure in The Flower Picker is dressed, but Waterhouse often seems to have observed the practice, common to many academic artists, of establishing his figures in the nude before adding their drapery, and our sketch may represent this phase in a picture's development. The background also differs from that of The Flower Picker, which is set in the country whereas our picture was evidently intended to show a city in the distance. This again, however, would be characteristic of Waterhouse, many of whose later paintings are variations on a theme.
We are grateful to Dr. Anthony Hobson for his help in preparing this entry.
On stylistic grounds the picture clearly dates from the later part of the artist's career, and the forms of the branches and blossom resemble those of the almond tree in Phyllis and Demophoön, a work exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1907 (Anthony Hobson, The Art and Life of J.W. Waterhouse, R.A., 1980, p. 127, pl. 124). On the other hand the pose of the figure is reminiscent of The Flower Picker, a composition which exists in two versions, a watercolour of 1900 (Hobson, op.cit., p. 58, pl. 44) and a contemporary oil sketch (repr. Anthony Hobson, J.W. Waterhouse, 1989, p. 84, pl. 59). The figure in The Flower Picker is dressed, but Waterhouse often seems to have observed the practice, common to many academic artists, of establishing his figures in the nude before adding their drapery, and our sketch may represent this phase in a picture's development. The background also differs from that of The Flower Picker, which is set in the country whereas our picture was evidently intended to show a city in the distance. This again, however, would be characteristic of Waterhouse, many of whose later paintings are variations on a theme.
We are grateful to Dr. Anthony Hobson for his help in preparing this entry.