Lot 338: Alexander Hohenlohe Burr (1835-1899)

Blind Man's Buff signed 'A Burr.' (lower left) oil on canvas 18 1/8 x 24 3/8 in. (46.4 x 61.9 cm.) PROVENANCE The Right Hon. Lady Thompson, Glasgow. Anon. sale, Christie's, Edinburgh, 13 November 1991, lot 591, when acquired by the present owner. NOTES This is a smaller version of Burr's Royal Academy exhibit of 1888. It is almost identical; the larger picture being marginally sharper and the figures being slightly more developed. The blindfolded grandfather appears stockier here, and his mouth more expressive. Similarly, the little boy with the hula-hoop, advancing through the door, has a toothier expression. It is these tiny details of characterisation that Burr has modified in his final version of the subject. The hair of the boy who tugs at his elder's coat-tails is more clipped, for example. The interior is also plainer; the small alcove to the left of the larger picture and various tea things being absent. A wooden stool rather than a toppled basket of fruit anchors the lower right-hand corner of the picture. As a result, this smaller canvas has a more robust complexion than the exhibited painting. Burr has attended to aesthetic vagaries as he worked up his most ambitious version. However this conveys all the charm of its larger twin, and replicates the grace of its compositional structure.