Young Girl Seated

James Pryde's earliest surviving works are mainly pastels. This pastel with the turquoise blue to the right of the figure recalls Whistler's palette (the deeper blue appears to have been subsequently enchanced altering the tonal balance), together with the areas of unworked paper typical of this period. The figure appears to be in a wood, with in the distance the shaped gables of a brick building - perhaps inspired by Pryde's trip to East Anglia to visit the composer Martin Shaw at Southwold in this year, 1897. The dreamlike-quality of the childish figure with her ornate hair style and off-the-shoulder dress decorated with pearls (or garlands) brings to mind the fête galantes scenes by Charles Conder - another of Pryde's circle of friends - and the Infantas of Velázquez, as in Pryde's gouache of circa 1899, Spanish Phantasy (Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford). There is an innocence to the scene that contrasts strongly with the subject matter Pryde embraced so soon afterwards.