Maidens Picking Flowers by a Stream

John William Waterhouse, 1849-1917

Oil on canvas

37 x 31 1/2 inches

Provenance: The artist's sale, Christie's, 23 July 1926; Christie's, 14th April 1967, lot 56 (bought by Saunders); The Hon. Christopher Lennox-Boyd.

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Commentary by Christopher Newall

After the turn of the century Waterhouse allowed himself to paint pictures which had less specific subjects than before. A theme which absorbed him and which led to a series of fine paintings was that of the landscape in spring with girls gathering flowers. These are occasionally veiled mythological subjects and may have been inspired by the Legend of Psyche, who was left in a meadow by Zepherus, or by the Legend of Narcissus.

Anthony Hobson has suggested that these theme was inspired by Burne-Jones's March Marigold.' If so, Waterhouse has adapted the type of a girl in flowing dress stooping to pick flowers in a landscape to a more realist end. In most of this series, including the present painting, there is a strong sense of plein-air brightness. The prototype of the series in Waterhouse's oeuvre was Windflowers of 1902, where the figure is caught by a gust of wind which blows her hair and imperils the flowers that she has picked. In the present painting, which was done according to Hobson in circa 1911, the same model is seen kneeling beside a stream stretching her arm to pick the flowers. A loosely sketched group of companions is seen beyond on the far bank of the stream. The theme received its final treatment, but by this stage it had reverted to a mythological subject, in Narcissus of 1913, where Waterhouse painted his model standing but stooping to pick daffodils.

References

Hobson, Anthony. The Art and Life of J. W. Waterhouse, R.A., p. 191, pl. 136, catalogue of paintings no. 187.

Newall, Christopher. A Celebration of British and European Painting of the 19th and 20th Centuries. London: Peter Nahum, nd [1999?]. Pp. 46-47.

Last modified 1 August 2006