Poor Louise, the Gleemaiden: an illustration from Sir Walter Scott's 'Fair Maid of Perth'

Details

Robert Scott Lauder, R.S.A. (1803-1869)
Poor Louise, the Gleemaiden: an illustration from Sir Walter Scott's 'Fair Maid of Perth'
oil on canvas
52 ½ x 40 in. (133.4 x 101.6 cm.)

Provenance

with J.B. Bennett & Sons, Glasgow.
R.J. Barclay Esq.
with The Fine Art Society Ltd., London, April 1971, no. 1074.
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, Gleneagles, 30 August 2006, lot 816.

Literature

W. Hardie, Scottish Painting 1837-1939, Glasgow, 1976, illus pl. 12.

Exhibited

London, Royal Academy, 1844, no. 514.
Edinburgh, Royal Scottish Academy, 1845, no. 19.
Glasgow, Scottish National Exhibition, 1901 and 1911, as 'The Gleemaiden'.

Special notice

All sold and unsold lots marked with a filled square in the catalogue that are not cleared from Christie’s by 5:00 pm on the day of the sale, and all sold and unsold lots not cleared from Christie’s by 5:00 pm on the fifth Friday following the sale, will be removed to the warehouse of ‘Cadogan Tate’. Please note that there will be no charge to purchasers who collect their lots within two weeks of this sale.

Lot Essay

"Ah, poor Louise! The livelong day
She roams from cot to castle gay;
And still her voice and viol say,
Ah, maids, beware the woodland way -
Think on Louise."

Louise is a travelling minstrel from Walter Scott's The Fair Maid of Perth which was published in 1828. She is depicted with her constant companion, a small French spaniel and wearing 'the dress of her calling, more gaudy than rich' which shows 'the person more than did the garb of other females'. Scott described her dusky good looks thus 'sunny complexion, snow-white teeth, brilliant black eyes, and raven locks, marked her country lying far in the south of France.'

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