Physical description
The artist's son is shown at play with his toy horse and cart in the back garden of the artist's home in the Edgware Road. A washing line is strung up between two trees and propped up with the bough of a tree.
Place of Origin
England, Great Britain (probably, painted)
Date
1840 (painted)
Artist/maker
Leslie, Charles Robert (painter (artist))
Materials and Techniques
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
Height: 30.5 cm estimate, Width: 40.6 cm estimate, Height: 940 mm frame, Width: 1120 mm frame, Depth: 110 mm frame
Object history note
Given by John Sheepshanks, 1857
Descriptive line
Oil painting, 'A Garden Scene', Charles Robert Leslie, 1840
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
Schulze, Sabine, ed. The Painter's Garden: Design, Inspiration, Delight. Frankfurt am Maim, Städel Museum; Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2006. ISBN: 9783775718714.
Exhibition catalogue
Catalogue of British Oil Paintings 1820-1860, Ronald Parkinson, Victoria and Albert Museum, London: HMSO, 1990, p. 174
The following is the full text of the entry:
LESLIE, Charles Robert, RA (1794-1859)
Born London 19 October 1794, eldest son of American parents, with whom he went to Philadelphia 1799. Apprenticed to a publisher 1808, received a few lessons in painting from Thomas Sully. A subscription was raised to enable him to study art in Europe; returned.to London 1811, entered RA Schools and studied with Benjamin West and Washington Allston. Visited Paris 1817 with Allston and Wilkie Collins, met G S Newton, with whom he visited Brussels and Antwerp. Also friend and biographer (published 1843) of John Constable. Exhibited 76 works at the RA between 1813 and 1859, and 11 at the BI 1815-32. Some were portraits, but most were his much admired literary subjects, particularly drawn from Cervantes, Moliere, Shakespeare and Steme. Elected ARA 1821, RA 1826. Several of his works were engraved, and he made six illustrations for Sir WaIter Scott's Waverley novels 1824. Worked for six months as drawing master at West Point Military Academy, New York State, 1833. Professor of Painting at RA 1848-52; his lectures were published as a Handbook for Young Painters (1855). His Life of Reynolds was finished by Tom Taylor and published 1865. Died St John's Wood, London, 5 May 1859. An exhibition at the RA of 30 of his works was held winter 1870. His two sons, George Dunlop and Robert, were also artists. The Athenaeum critic (9 May 1846, p480) wrote that he was 'unrivalled for the certainty of his powers, the wit of his pencil, the deep knowledge of human nature as exhibited in the more ordinary scenes of life'.
LIT: Art JournaI1856, pp73-5 and 105-7, 1859, p187 (obit); C R Leslie Autobiographical Recollections ed T Taylor, 2 vols, 1860; J Dafforne Pictures by C R Leslie nd [1875]; Art ]ournaI1902, pp 144-8; J Constable The Letters of John Constable and C R Leslie 1931; ed R B Beckett John Constable's Correspondence III, Ipswich 1965
A Garden Scene
FA130 Neg GH1580
Canvas, 30.5 X 40.6 cm (12 X 16 ins)
Sheepshanks Gift 1857
Listed by Taylor (Leslie II, p255) under 1840, and described as 'Child in a Garden, with his little horse and cart. (A portrait of George, the painter's youngest son).' George Dunlop Leslie, later a painter and writer, was born 2 July 1835; he died in 1921. The garden was at 12 Pine Apple Place, Edgware Road, London. Taylor lists another 'evening landscape from Mr Leslie's window' under 1836. The work has the character of a personal family snapshot, but may have been painted for Sheepshanks nevertheless, althoght Taylor does not specify this.
EXH: Victorian Painting Arts Council 1962 (40); Paintings and Drawings by Victorian Artists in England National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 1965 (79): The Revolt of the Pre-Raphaelites Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, Florida, 1972
Ronald Parkinson"
100 Great Paintings in The Victoria & Albert Museum. London: V&A, 1985, p.134
The following is the full text of the entry:
"Charles Robert Leslie 1794-1859
British School
A GARDEN SCENE
Oil on canvas, 30 X 40 cm
FA.130. Sheepshanks Gift.
Charles Robert Leslie (1794-1859) is seen today as a 'Victorian' painter, but in fact his earliest works exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1813 on considerably predate Queen Victoria's accession to the throne in 1837. Of American parentage, he spent his early years in Philadelphia; a subscription raised by its citizens enabled him to study painting in Europe. From 1811 he studied at the Royal Academy School in London. At first he made several attempts at history painting, encouraged by his American friends Benjamin West and Washington Allston, but soon found his artistic niche in the humorous treatment of literary or historical themes - starting with the popular success of Sir Roger de Coverley going to Church (Royal Academy, 1819).
A Garden Scene (1840) is unusual for Leslie in its contemporary subject matter. The artist's youngest son, George Dunlop Leslie, later to become an artist himself, is shown at play with his horse and cart in the back garden of the artist's home off the Edgware Road. In contrast to his exhibition pieces, Leslie painted more personal works - portraits, young ladies, mothers and children and even a few scenes of children - for example The Mother and Child (1846) and Children playing at Coach and Horses (1847). As is clear from his Autobiographical Recollections (ed. Tom Taylor, 1860), he was very fond of his wife and family, allowing them to stay in his studio while he worked, and of childish fun and domesticity. In this, he was at one with the Victorians who in their art and literature revealed a preoccupation with childhood, with its innocence and beauty. However, unlike many who worked in this vein, he never became sentimental or moralizing.
The composition of A Garden Scene is simple and easy: the curving boughs and the washing line interact, emphasizing the child as the focus of this intimate scene. The colours - green, red and white - are chalky, opaque and naturalistically observed. Direct and indirect sunlight falling in patches over the figure and garden creates a sense of the outdoors.
The influence of Constable, with whom Leslie became friends and whose biography he wrote, is felt throughout this work: in its en plein air setting, treatment of light and fresh observation. In his choice of a domestic, tender scene the artist may reflect his study of C17 Dutch genre painters such as de Hooch and Maes. A certain theatricality in the use of light and the child's gesture seems characteristic of Leslie, who loved the stage.
Sarah Postgate"
Exhibition History
The Painter's Garden: Design, Inspiration, Delight. (Municipal Gallery in Lenbach House (Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus), Munich 05/04/2007-08/07/2007)
The Painter's Garden: Design, Inspiration, Delight. (Städel Museum (Stadelsches Kunstinstitut und Stadtische Galerie), Frankfurt am Main 24/11/2006-11/03/2007)
Materials
Oil paint; Canvas
Techniques
Oil painting
Subjects depicted
Figures; London; Children; Toys; Leslie, George Dunlop
Categories
Children & Childhood; Paintings
Collection code
PDP
