FOLLOWER OF THE PRE-RAPHAELITE BROTHERHOOD, 1860’S
A Young Girl with a Terrier on the Moors
oil on canvas
40 x 50 inches (127 x 101.2 cm.)
PROVENANCE
Robert Lang Collection, Rye, New York, acquired circa 1930 – 1940 until 1999 and from where purchased by
Lawrence Steigrad Fine Arts, New York and from whom acquired by
Private Collection, New Jersey, 2000, until the present time
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was a many faceted movement. Among its adherents were artists interested in landscapes and scenes from contemporary life. In this painting a fashionably dressed young girl is viewed feeding a biscuit to a terrier while seated on an embankment on the moors.
What defines this painting as Pre-Raphaelite is its attention to nature as well as the subject in which all parts are focused upon equally, similar to that of a high-definition film.[1] As here, the colors of the Pre-Raphaelites take on an “uncommon brilliance”.[2] Shadows are virtually banished. Such works were painted outside with exacting realism applied to every element,[3] as in this instance the stones scattered in the foreground are so intensely rendered that they appear gemlike.
Robert Lang was a stockbroker in New York City who when not working frequented the many auction houses that flourished throughout the city in the 1930s and 1940s. He amassed such extensive and diverse collections that not only his home but outbuildings on his estate at Rye were filled.
We would like to thank Peter Trippi for pointing out this work’s affiliation with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
[1] “Were the Pre-Raphaelites Britains First Modern Artists?” on tate.org.uk.
[2] Sarah M. M Leonard, The Bower of the Pre-Raphaelites: Plant Life and the Search For Meaning in the Art of Millais, Rossetti, & Morris, BA thesis, Wesleyan University, 2009, pg 1.
[3] Dominic Witck, “The Pre-Raphaelite in Nature” on ArtsperMagazine, blog.artsper.com, April 4, 2022; and Jennifer Meagher, “The Pre-Raphaelites” on The Metropolitan Museum of Art, themet/metmuseum.org.