Peasant Girl Carrying a Jar, Quimperlé
Oil Painting
1882 (painted)
1882 (painted)
Artist/Maker | |
Place of origin |
This portrait of a young girl has an intensely real quality. She is shown standing in a field, holding an earthenware pot, flanked by the spherical forms of flowering onion plants. The picture is influenced by the conventions of photography in its uncompromising directness. The girl is posing in a slightly awkward way, as if she were having a snapshot taken, showing none of the relaxed and confident attitudes of a professional model. Clausen represents the serious and somewhat doubtful expression on her face with great tenderness. He makes the viewer sense the mixed emotions that must have been in the mind of the child, confronted by the strange and foreign figure of the artist. Although the subtle colouring used by Clausen to some extent glamorises her peasant costume, we are still made aware of her life of poverty and hard work, indicated by the simplicity and homespun nature of her clothes.
George Clausen was a British painter who originally trained as a decorator. He studied painting at the South Kensington School of Art in London and the Antwerp Academy. The subject matter of this image is typical of the rustic scenes that Clausen favoured, partly as a result of the influence of French naturalism. This tendency, which first emerged in Clausen’s work in the late 1870s, was confirmed by his visit to the artists’ colony of Quimperlé in Brittany in 1882, when this picture was painted.
George Clausen was a British painter who originally trained as a decorator. He studied painting at the South Kensington School of Art in London and the Antwerp Academy. The subject matter of this image is typical of the rustic scenes that Clausen favoured, partly as a result of the influence of French naturalism. This tendency, which first emerged in Clausen’s work in the late 1870s, was confirmed by his visit to the artists’ colony of Quimperlé in Brittany in 1882, when this picture was painted.
Object details
Categories | |
Object type | |
Parts | This object consists of 3 parts.
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Title | Peasant Girl Carrying a Jar, Quimperlé (assigned by artist) |
Materials and techniques | oil on canvas |
Brief description | Oil painting entitled 'Peasant Girl Carrying a Jar, Quimperlé' by George Clausen R.A. British School, 1882. |
Physical description | Full length portrait of a young Breton girl, carrying a jar or jug of milk, standing with her hand on her hip in a field. She is wearing traditional rural dress with a white bonnet. |
Dimensions |
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Style | |
Marks and inscriptions | 'G CLAUSEN 1882 QUIMPERLÉ' (Signed and dated by the artist) |
Gallery label |
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Credit line | Bequeathed by Henry Louis Florence |
Object history | Bequeathed by Henry L. Florence, 1916 |
Historical context | There is a striking similarity between Breton Girl Carrying a Jar and a work also painted in 1882 by Stanhope Alexander Forbes, The Orchard, Quimperle (lot 55 in Sotheby's, Victorian and Edwardian Art, 11 December 2007, London). Clausen joined Forbes in Brittany at this time. |
Subject depicted | |
Place depicted | |
Summary | This portrait of a young girl has an intensely real quality. She is shown standing in a field, holding an earthenware pot, flanked by the spherical forms of flowering onion plants. The picture is influenced by the conventions of photography in its uncompromising directness. The girl is posing in a slightly awkward way, as if she were having a snapshot taken, showing none of the relaxed and confident attitudes of a professional model. Clausen represents the serious and somewhat doubtful expression on her face with great tenderness. He makes the viewer sense the mixed emotions that must have been in the mind of the child, confronted by the strange and foreign figure of the artist. Although the subtle colouring used by Clausen to some extent glamorises her peasant costume, we are still made aware of her life of poverty and hard work, indicated by the simplicity and homespun nature of her clothes. George Clausen was a British painter who originally trained as a decorator. He studied painting at the South Kensington School of Art in London and the Antwerp Academy. The subject matter of this image is typical of the rustic scenes that Clausen favoured, partly as a result of the influence of French naturalism. This tendency, which first emerged in Clausen’s work in the late 1870s, was confirmed by his visit to the artists’ colony of Quimperlé in Brittany in 1882, when this picture was painted. |
Bibliographic references |
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Collection | |
Accession number | P.54-1917 |
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Record created | September 23, 2002 |
Record URL |
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