Lot Essay
The theme of girls picking flowers occurs many times in Waterhouse's later work. This sketch is closest to an unfinished canvas, now entitled Maidens picking Flowers by a Stream, which Hobson dates to circa 1911. It was sold at Christie's on 14 April 1967, lot 56; see Hobson, 1980, fig.136, and 1989, fig.74
The sketch on the back of a girl seated on the ground and plaiting her hair does not seem to relate to any known picture of this date, but the motif is characteristic. Compare, for instance, La Belle Dame sans Merci of 1893 (Darmstadt; Hobson, 1980, fig.58; 1989, fig.29), or Waterhouse's R.A. Diploma picture, A Mermaid, of 1901 (Hobson, 1980, fig.103; 1989, fig.55).
The sketch on the back of a girl seated on the ground and plaiting her hair does not seem to relate to any known picture of this date, but the motif is characteristic. Compare, for instance, La Belle Dame sans Merci of 1893 (Darmstadt; Hobson, 1980, fig.58; 1989, fig.29), or Waterhouse's R.A. Diploma picture, A Mermaid, of 1901 (Hobson, 1980, fig.103; 1989, fig.55).