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Painting - The Piping Shepherd
  • The Piping Shepherd
    Fripp, Alfred Downing, born 1822 - died 1895
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The Piping Shepherd

  • Object:

    Painting

  • Place of origin:

    England, Great Britain (made)

  • Date:

    1870-1889 (made)

  • Artist/Maker:

    Fripp, Alfred Downing, born 1822 - died 1895 (artist)

  • Materials and Techniques:

    Watercolour

  • Credit Line:

    Dixon Bequest

  • Museum number:

    1198-1886

  • Gallery location:

    In store

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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.

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.

Place of Origin

England, Great Britain (made)

Date

1870-1889 (made)

Artist/maker

Fripp, Alfred Downing, born 1822 - died 1895 (artist)

Materials and Techniques

Watercolour

Marks and inscriptions

Alfred Fripp

Dimensions

Height: 88 cm frame, Width: 72 cm frame, Depth: 5.5 cm frame

Object history note

Dixon Bequest

Descriptive line

Watercolour 'The Piping Shepherd' painted in England by Alfred Fripp between 1870 and 1889

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

Used as Frontispiece in 'The Windsor Magazine' October 1901

Materials

Watercolour

Techniques

Painting

Subjects depicted

Sheep dog

Categories

Children & Childhood; Paintings

Collection code

BGM

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Qr_O93394
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