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Lot Essay
A new light in the Harem, depicts a composition of figures in an Oriental interior taken from Goodall's famous painting, of the same name, which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1884, and is now housed in Sudley House (E. Morris, Victorian & Edwardian Paintings in the Walker Art Gallery and at Sudley House, London 1996, pp. 180-182, illustrated p. 181). The title possibly derives from Frederic Leighton's picture of 1880, Light of the Harem, which was greatly admired by Goodall.
The Sudley House picture is a larger image depicting the same nurse and baby, but also an additional figure, probably the mother, reclining on a couch in the background. Goodall described the larger picture in the following terms: 'The New Light in the Harem, the new light being an infant lying on a rug on his back, and amused by his negro nurse with a live pigeon which she is holding in her hand....In this picture there is the gazelle that Sir William Flower so kindly procured for me from the Zoological Gardens to paint from, which I had in my studio for several days" (Reminiscences,1902, p. 386).
The picture was well received, "Mr F. Goodall...had made a hit because his work has an animated motive, a certain kind of grace, and cheerful tone and colour." (The Athenaeum, 31 May 1884, p. 701). It was immediately purchased by the Walker Art Gallery. Sketches for the composition exist, and Goodall painted at least one other full-scale version in addition to the present picture.
The Sudley House picture is a larger image depicting the same nurse and baby, but also an additional figure, probably the mother, reclining on a couch in the background. Goodall described the larger picture in the following terms: 'The New Light in the Harem, the new light being an infant lying on a rug on his back, and amused by his negro nurse with a live pigeon which she is holding in her hand....In this picture there is the gazelle that Sir William Flower so kindly procured for me from the Zoological Gardens to paint from, which I had in my studio for several days" (Reminiscences,1902, p. 386).
The picture was well received, "Mr F. Goodall...had made a hit because his work has an animated motive, a certain kind of grace, and cheerful tone and colour." (The Athenaeum, 31 May 1884, p. 701). It was immediately purchased by the Walker Art Gallery. Sketches for the composition exist, and Goodall painted at least one other full-scale version in addition to the present picture.