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Oil painting - Novitiate Mendicants
  • Novitiate Mendicants
    Richard Rothwell, born 1800 - died 1868
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Novitiate Mendicants

  • Object:

    Oil painting

  • Place of origin:

    England, Great Britain (painted)

  • Date:

    ca. 1837 (painted)

  • Artist/Maker:

    Richard Rothwell, born 1800 - died 1868 (artist)

  • Materials and Techniques:

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line:

    Given by John Sheepshanks, 1857

  • Museum number:

    FA.178[O]

  • Gallery location:

    In Storage

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Richard Rothwell RHA (1800-1868) began his artistic career as a portrait painter in Dublin, Eire. He then moved to London and became studio assistant to Sir Thomas Lawrence, finishing several of Lawrence's works after the his death in 1830. By the early 1840s Rothwell had established a good practice of his own. He travelled several times to Europe and twice to the USA and described himself as having 'the dream of a posthumous fame'.

This painting is a particularly fine example of Rothwell's work in the field of genre painting. Its sentiment and colouring were admired by contemporary audiences but the way in which the boy and girl seem to be playing at begging rather than genuinely driven by necessity is perhaps less appealing to today's viewer. When the image was engraved for the Art Journal in 1872, the accompanying text referred to this ambiguity in the subject matter, a circumstance which may have been intended by the artist.

Physical description

A young boy and girl stand back to back in a country setting. The girl pulls at her skirt with her left hand and holds her right hand up to her face. Both children look out of the painting toward the viewer.

Place of Origin

England, Great Britain (painted)

Date

ca. 1837 (painted)

Artist/maker

Richard Rothwell, born 1800 - died 1868 (artist)

Materials and Techniques

oil on canvas

Dimensions

Height: 92.6 cm estimate, Width: 73.6 cm estimate, Height: 120 cm framed, Width: 90 cm framed

Object history note

Given by John Sheepshanks, 1857

Descriptive line

Oil painting on canvas entitled 'Novitiate Mendicants' by Richard Rothwell R.H.A. Great Britain, ca. 1837.

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

Catalogue of British Oil Paintings 1820-1860, Ronald Parkinson, Victoria and Albert Museum, London: HMSO, 1990, pp. 254-255
The following is the full text of the entry:

"ROTHWELL, Richard, RHA (1800-1868)
Born Athlone, Ireland, 20 November 1800. Studied at Royal Dublin Society's Drawing School 1814-20, then worked in Dublin as portrait painter. Member of RHA 1826, resigned 1837, re-elected 1847. Moved to London, worked as Sir Thomas Lawrence's studio assistant, completing pictures after Lawrence's death 1830. Successful portrait practice with several distinguished sitters; the Art Journal listed him among six most eminent portraitists in 1843 (p570). Exhibited 72 works at the RA between 1830 and 1862, 28 at the BI 1832-63, one at the SBA 1851, and at the Royal Hibernian Academy. Travelled on Continent 1831-4, inspiring Italian subjects. Returned to Dublin 1847-52, then London to 1854, short visits to USA 1854 and 1855, Rome 1856-8, Leamington, Warwickshire, until 1862. Travelled to Belfast, Paris, Brussels and Rome, where he died September 1868. Buried alongside the poet John Keats. According to Strickland, Rothwell wrote he 'was given to the dream of a posthumous fame', but he had 'a high, an extravagant, opinion of his own powers as a painter'.

LIT: Art JournaI 1868, p245 (obit), 1872, p271; W G Strickland, A Dictionary of Irish Artists II, 1913, pp300-12

Novitiate Mendicants
FA178 Neg F74
Canvas, 92.6 X 73.6 cm (36 ½ X 29 ins)
Sheepshanks Gift 1857

Presumably the work exhibited first as 'The Poor Mendicants' at the RA in 1837, and then as 'The Mendicants' at the BI in 1838, its size given in the catalogue (including frame) as 49 by 40 inches. The Athenaeum critic found 'The expression of the girl, melancholy and shy, but not awkward, and the ill-repressed merriment of the sun-burnt boy, who shrinks behind her, are excellently given: the colouring is beautiful'. The text accompanying the Browne engraving after the painting published in the Art Journal in 1872 noted:

Rothwell painted a few genre-subjects, of which the 'Novitiate Mendicants' is one of the best. We have no clue as to its date, but in all probability it was painted in Ireland, for the face is decidedly Irish; yet the pair are too decently clad for juvenile beggars of that country; and, indeed, of any other. There appears to be more of sly humour in their faces, as if playing at mendicancy, than of earnest solicitation; but whether or not the composition bears out its title, it is a charming work of its kind, most agreeable in conception, and solid in execution.

A preliminary sketch for the work, and other drawings by Rothwell, were presented to the museum by Miss C Rothwell, the artist's granddaughter, in 1950 (E319-1950). Copies of the Sangster engraving (which was much admired by the Art Journal in 1844, p150) and the Templeton lithograph (see Engr: below) are also in the museum collections. Another sketch for the composition for the painting was recorded in a private collection in 1968.

EXH: RA 1837 (297); BI 1838 (61); RHA 1838

ENGR: Samuel Sangster, as 'Novitiate Mendicants', for the Royal Irish Art Union 1841; Lithograph, John Samuelson Templeton, publ 15 July 1844; H Browne, for the Art JournaI 1872, facing p271

LIT: Athenaeum 17 February 1838, p129; Art Journal 1844, p150, 1872, p271

Ronald Parkinson"

Materials

Oil paint; Canvas

Techniques

Oil painting

Subjects depicted

Children; Clothing; Poverty; Beggars; Mendicants

Collection code

PDP

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Qr_O16535
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