The Piping Shepherd
Painting
1870-1889 (made)
1870-1889 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
The painting shows a romanticised view of rural childhood. At this date some British shepherd boys still wore traditional smocks, but they were of a greyish-brown colour known as drab, and would not have had matching hats. The boys made their pipes from whatever materials were to hand in the pastures, such as the hollow stems of reeds. The green smock and the Baroque recorder in this painting owe more to the Aesthetic Movement, which was prominent at the time and which emphasised beauty, especially in historical form.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | The Piping Shepherd (assigned by artist) |
| Materials and techniques | Watercolour |
| Brief description | Watercolour 'The Piping Shepherd' painted in England by Alfred Fripp between 1870 and 1889 |
| Physical description | The painting is of portrait proportions and shows a shepherd boy standing on a cliff top: beside him is his grey and white dog and behind them are some of his sheep reclining on the turf, and a flock of seabirds around a promontory. He has fair curls and blue eyes, and is wearing a green smock and matching broad-brimmed hat, with khaki trousers and brown lace-up boots; he holds a descant or soprano recorder of baroque type raised towards his mouth, his fingers in playing position with the right hand uppermost. To his right in the background the sunrise or sunset is reflected in pink on the sea and in the sky. |
| Dimensions |
|
| Marks and inscriptions | Alfred Fripp (Signature; lower right corner; writing; paint) |
| Credit line | Dixon Bequest |
| Object history | Dixon Bequest |
| Subject depicted | |
| Summary | The painting shows a romanticised view of rural childhood. At this date some British shepherd boys still wore traditional smocks, but they were of a greyish-brown colour known as drab, and would not have had matching hats. The boys made their pipes from whatever materials were to hand in the pastures, such as the hollow stems of reeds. The green smock and the Baroque recorder in this painting owe more to the Aesthetic Movement, which was prominent at the time and which emphasised beauty, especially in historical form. |
| Bibliographic reference | Used as Frontispiece in 'The Windsor Magazine' October 1901 |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | 1198-1886 |
About this object record
Explore the Collections contains over a million catalogue records, and over half a million images. It is a working database that includes information compiled over the life of the museum. Some of our records may contain offensive and discriminatory language, or reflect outdated ideas, practice and analysis. We are committed to addressing these issues, and to review and update our records accordingly.
You can write to us to suggest improvements to the record.
Suggest feedback
You can write to us to suggest improvements to the record.
Suggest feedback
| Record created | February 20, 2004 |
| Record URL |
Download as: JSONIIIF Manifest
