Woman Picking Flowers

Date created: c.1909

circa 1909-14

It was auctioned at Christie's in 1997 with a lot description by Dr. Anthony Hobson:

"This unrecorded work would appear to be a fragment of an unfinished painting, although the way in which it is made up about six inches from the bottom, together with the age of the frame, suggest that the cutting down was done at an early date, very likely by Waterhouse himself.

On stylistic grounds the picture clearly dates from the later part of the artist's career, and the forms of the branches and blossom resemble those of the almond tree in Phyllis and Demophoon, a work exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1907. On the other hand the pose of the figure is reminiscent of The Flower Picker, a composition which exists in two versions, a watercolour of 1900, and a contemporary oil sketch. The figure in The Flower Picker is dressed, but Waterhouse often seems to have observed the practice, common to many academic artists, of establishing his figures in the nude before adding their drapery, and this sketch may represent this phase in a picture's development. The background also differs from that of The Flower Picker, which is set in the country whereas this sketch was evidently intended to show a city in the distance. This again, however, would be characteristic of Waterhouse, many of whose later paintings are variations on a theme.

Also known as 'A Nude Girl in a Landscape'.