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Lot Essay
As he was completing his studentship at the Royal Academy Schools, the precocious La Thangue announced his intention to embark on a further period of training in Paris. Being of exceptional promise, and the schools' gold medallist, the Academy's President, Frederic, Lord Leighton, wrote on La Thangue's behalf to Jean-Léon Gérôme, one of the chefs d'atelier, to secure him a place at the prestigious École des Beaux Arts, where he registered in January 1880. He was following the growing trend for British art students to travel to what was widely regarded as la capitale de l'art. Although he was friendly with others, such as Stanhope Forbes and Arthur Hacker, we learn from Forbes's gossipy letters that in the French capital La Thangue kept himself aloof.
During the following summers he worked in Brittany but no visits to Italy are recorded at that time. Since Italian models, posing in peasant costume, were however, frequently employed in the Paris ateliers, it is likely that the present study was executed at this point. Not only would this make it one of his earliest extant works, but it also reveals the confident alla prima painting for which he became known in later years. Comparison with the undated Nude Study (Potteries Museum, Stoke-on-Trent) is apposite, for this early student piece shares great assurance in handling form with the present work. La Thangue's metier - the mosaic of square brushstrokes for which he was later renowned - had not yet settled, but there was in Italian Peasant Girl, sufficient evidence of his talent to single him out as one of leading young painters of his generation.
KMc.
During the following summers he worked in Brittany but no visits to Italy are recorded at that time. Since Italian models, posing in peasant costume, were however, frequently employed in the Paris ateliers, it is likely that the present study was executed at this point. Not only would this make it one of his earliest extant works, but it also reveals the confident alla prima painting for which he became known in later years. Comparison with the undated Nude Study (Potteries Museum, Stoke-on-Trent) is apposite, for this early student piece shares great assurance in handling form with the present work. La Thangue's metier - the mosaic of square brushstrokes for which he was later renowned - had not yet settled, but there was in Italian Peasant Girl, sufficient evidence of his talent to single him out as one of leading young painters of his generation.
KMc.