Lot 86: Frederick Smallfield, A.R.W.S. , 1829-1915 a maid learning to read oil on board

signed and dated l.l.: F. Smallfield/ 1858 oil on board

measurements note 26 by 21 cm; 10 ¼ by 8 ¼ in.

Hartnoll & Eyre, London, where bought by Lady Scott in 1973 for £600

As a student at the Royal Academy Schools in the late 1840s and in the course of his subsequent career, Frederick Smallfield came into contact with the Pre-Raphaelite circle. His watercolours and oils of figurative subjects represent an amalgam of Pre-Raphaelite influence, in their use of intense colours and stippled texture, and the tradition of William Henry Hunt of whose rustic figures Smallfield's genre subjects are often reminiscent. His most characteristic subjects show attractive young people, clearly of working class background, shown individually or in groups and conducting themselves in a way that has a feeling of authentic and naturalistic observation. A painting of the same period as the present subject, and which shows distinct Pre-Raphaelite influence, is Early Lovers (Manchester City Art Gallery), a charming scene of adolescent courtship.
There is an unselfconsciousness and absence of deliberation in the composition, a characteristic which allows the painting to be seen as marking progress from the more didactic and archly symbolic genre subjects of many other artists of the 1850s. We are left to speculate as to who this child may be, dressed as she is for outdoor work in a purple cape and roughly torn skirt. The most striking aspect of the composition is the smiling and animated expression of the girl, which seems to suggest an imminent dialogue with an unseen companion - and, because she looks directly towards the viewer, he may imagine himself her interlocutor. Smallfield has paid close attention to the various objects, perhaps connected with the girl's work: the besom that leans against the wall on the left, and another brush - perhaps suitable for sweeping grates - that hangs from a hook on the wall behind her. On the left side is a further purple garment, and a bonnet. On the right, placed on an upright table, are a bottle, jug and bowl, and an apple. On the lower shelf is a metal milk pail. It is the candid observation of these different objects, which seem randomly selected for inclusion or perhaps represented simply because they were there, and the extraordinary skill with which Smallfield captures the colours and textures of their various materials, which makes the painting so much of its period and so remarkable.