Study for 'The Nymph'

By 1886 Stott appears to have made a deliberate move into figurative paintings more in line with the preoccupations of the Aesthetic movement in Britain. At this date the walls of the Royal Academy were populated with classical subjects and nudes by artists such as Frederic, Lord Leighton, Albert Moore and Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema. Brown posits that the decision to focus on the classical nude and later, more Arthurian subject matter, rather than the natural realism of Bastien Lepage was an attempt by Stott for recognition by the Royal Academy.

This pastel study of a reclining red haired woman in the dappled light of a forest demonstrates Stott’s mastery with pastel. The colours are fresh and a sense of warmth radiates from the paper. In many ways the study is more successful than the finished oil, The Nymph (1886, Glasgow Museums and Art Galleries). Perhaps the freedom of the rapid workings of the pastel enabled Stott to better translate his ideas than the oil which shows the long hours spent over it. He recorded several studies in the process of which this pastel, from 1885, is amongst the earliest. The oil proved to be a popular exhibition picture and was selected for the British Section at the 1889 Paris Exposition Universelle.