Frederick William Newton Whitehead (1853-1938)

Details

Frederick William Newton Whitehead (1853-1938)

The River Frome, Morton, Near Dorchester

Where the river stilled its depths by the weir,
The painter sat apart.
In a place of peace, and they passed unaware
Of his glowing heart,
And his burnished brush,
Catching the gleams,
Of the evenings flush,
Poised on the edge of the shining streams
The glories gathering in.
Only the people of the cottage knew,
None from the outer world, how
Cunningly the path's slight clue
Lead on behind to the slippery bough
Where his canvas hung above yellowing leaves
The battle sings and bubbles and heaves
In his van a yard or two away
At the end of October's day.
Mrs Thomas Hardy

signed and dated 'Fred Whitehead/1901' (lower left); oil on canvas
36 x 28in. (91.4 x 71.1cm.)

Provenance

Herbert Clarence and thence by descent to W.A. Clarence

Literature

Clive Holland, 'The Work of Frederick Whitehead, a Painter of Thomas Hardy's Wessex', Studio XXXII, 1904, pp.105-119
F.H. Haines, 'Frederick Whitehead', The Dorset Yearbook, 1938, pp.10-15
Frederick Whitehead : Dorset Landscapes, exh. Dorset County Museum, 1987, cat.

Lot Essay

This poem was written by the first Mrs Thomas Hardy, formally Emma Lavinia Gifford (d.1912), specifically about this picture. The picture was painted in 1901 and it is thought that Mrs Hardy wrote the verse to accompany a photograph.

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