Temptation: A Fruit Stall

Physical description

The tradition of painting traders plying their wares out-of-doors in city and country was well-established by 1850, and Smith enhances the familiar subject by adding the specifically nineteenth-century theme of childhood. The expression on the face of the fruitseller, stationed outside the country school door, is well-observed, at once amused and disapproving, but alert to the fact that the mother is reaching into her purse. While in eighteenth-century pictures of similar subjects, the vendor would have been a pretty young woman, here the features of the stall-keeper is contrasted with the youth and attractiveness of her customers.

Place of Origin

England, Great Britain (painted)

Date

1850 (painted)

Artist/maker

Smith, George, born 1829 - died 1901 (artist)

Materials and Techniques

Oil on panel

Marks and inscriptions

'GS [monogram] 1850'

Dimensions

Height: 63.5 cm estimate, Width: 76.1 cm estimate, Height: 86.5 cm framed, Width: 98.5 cm framed

Object history note

Given by John Sheepshanks, 1857

Descriptive line

Oil painting, 'Temptation - A Fruit Stall', George Smith, 1850

Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)

Catalogue of British Oil Paintings 1820-1860, Ronald Parkinson, Victoria and Albert Museum, London: HMSO, 1990, p. 268
The following is the full text of the catalogue entry:

"SMITH, George (1829-1901)
Born London 18 April 1829, studied at Cary's school, entered RA 1845, and worked in studio of C W Cope. Exhibited 79 works at the RA between 1848 and 1887, 26 at the BI 1847-67, and 15 at the SBA 1851-9 and 1881/2. Subjects mainly genre, often involving children. Died Maida Vale, London, 2 January 1901.

Temptation - A Fruit Stall
FA186 Neg 59105
Panel, 63.5 X 76.1 cm (25 X 30 ins)
Signed and dated 'GS[monogr] 1850' br
Sheepshanks Gift 1857

Exhibited at the RA in 1850 as 'Temptation'. The Art Journal wrote: 'The objects of trial are some children, who are assembled round a fruit stall, presided over by a hard-featured old woman, sensible only to the touch of coined metal. She is a highly successful study. In the face there is a living truth not very often attainable'.
A small oil study for the work was included in a group of studies sold at Christie's 2 February 1923 (111). The artist also exhibited 'The Fruit Stall' at the BI in 1852 (149, size given in the catalogue including frame as 27 by 25 inches). A similar subject, 'The Cherry Seller', with apparently the same female model, was recorded in a London private collection in 1969; this was possibly the 'Cherry-seller' exhibited at the RA in 1855 (1347).
The painting was reproduced in colour as a birthday greetings card published by the Medici Society Ltd.

EXH: RA 1850 (69)

LIT: Art Journal 1850, p166

Ronald Parkinson"

Materials

Oil paint; Panel

Techniques

Oil painting

Subjects depicted

Fruit; Selling

Categories

Paintings; Eating

Collection code

PDP