Shepherd and Sheep. Oil on canvas. 14 1/4 x 11 1/2 inches (36 x 29 cm). Collection of Girton College, University of Cambridge, accession no. 22. Image courtesy of Girton College Collection reproduced via Art UK for purposes of non-commercial academic research.
This oil painting features a shepherd in a white robe and a flock of sheep in a rocky Algerian landscape. The foliage in the foreground and midground is treated in greater detail as compared to the treatment of the desolate landscape seen in the background. More than half of the paintings Bodichon exhibited featured Algerian subjects. In her first appearance at the Society of Female Artists in 1858 she had exhibited five Algerian landscapes. Algerian scenes were also the main subjects she showed at her solo exhibitions at Earnest Gambart's French Gallery in 1859, 1861, and 1864 and at her joint exhibition with Eliza Bridell-Fox at the German Gallery in July 1866.
Margaretta Frederick has discussed the appeal, in terms of her art, of the exotic places that Bodichon visited:
The subject of her landscapes encompassed a broad geographical spectrum encountered through extensive travel, often to locales of colonial/imperial contestation. I suggest these landscapes were a reflection and manifestation of her desire for the empowerment of the "other," most prominently the enslaved she encountered in America and the colonised peoples of Algeria. Her compassion for the outsider was undoubtedly strengthened by her own position of exile within Victorian social and cultural conventions. The empathy for those who were vulnerable or defenceless was lifelong, grounded in her own unique position within British society. [122-23]
In terms of the work executed while in Algeria, Frederick has noted: "Using their Algiers home, located on the hill of Mustafa Superieure, overlooking the port as a home base, she continued her habit of arduous excursion, embarking on periodic explorations of the landscape, often in the company of women friends visiting from England" (135).
Bibliography
Appleyard, Kirsten. "Algerian Landscape, with the Atlas Mountains in the Distance." Gathered Leaves. Edited by Sonia Delre and Kirsten Appleyard. Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 2024, cat. 78, 170.
Frederick, Margaretta. "Politics and Paint: The Life Work of Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon." Pre-Raphaelite Sisters. Art, Poetry and Female Agency in Victorian Britain. Eds. Glenda Youde and Robert Wilkes, Oxford: Peter Lang, 2022. 121-48.
Marsh, Jan, and Pamela Gerrish Nunn. Pre-Raphaelite Women Artists. Manchester: Manchester Cities Art Gallery, 1997, 104.
Shepherd and Sheep. Art UK. Web. 2 February 2025.
Created 2 February 2025