Weary. 1866. Watercolour and gouache on paper, 17 x 24 inches (43.2 x 61 cm). Private collection. Click on image to enlarge it.
y 1867 when this work was exhibited at the O.W.S. Burton was principally showing “Aesthetic” pictures of beautiful women based on historical or literary sources. He was still occasionally, however, painting genre pictures of women in their traditional costumes, although by this time Italian rather than German subjects. Many Victorian painters had visited Italy and Burton was no exception travelling there in 1864, 1869, and 1876. A number of painters within the Pre-Raphaelite circle painted pictures of Italian models in traditional dress including William Holman Hunt, Robert Braithwaite Martineau, Edward Burne-Jones, Frederic Leighton, Henry Wallis and Val Prinsep.
Burton had likely made studies for Weary during his trip to Italy in 1864 but the painting itself would have been worked up in his London studio. He probably used one of the models from within the large Italian community in London. Weary features a young Italian woman who has fallen asleep at her spinning. A cat is curled up close to her, further emphasising the idea of a noonday siesta. The background must either be imaginary or based on studies Burton would have made in Italy. Other similar pictures Burton executed include his The Romany Girl of 1865 and La Romanina of 1870. The latter is a particularly beautiful example and was painted during his trip to Rome in 1870.
Weary was well reviewed when it was exhibited at the Old Water Colour Society. The critic for The Art Journal was impressed by this work: “One of the most essentially artistic pictures in the room is Mr. Burton’s figure of ‘Weary’ (139), an Italian peasant-girl, who has sunk down on stone-steps asleep. The incident is simple enough, it is the treatment, the colour, and the technical merits which are so consummate. These excellences contrast strongly with the qualities we have just condemned in the works of some of the younger associates. Mr. Burton calculates chromatic relationships with subtle precision, as seen, for example, in the three juxtaposed passages of sky, mountain, and green leaves” (146). F. G. Stephens in The Athenaeum stated: “Another figure-painter with equal aims to those of Mr. Jones [Edward Burne-Jones] - inferior power, with colour, and superior skill in modelling and drawing to his - is Mr. F. W. Burton. Two contributions – Weary (139), an Italian girl sleeping on the steps of a porch, breathing painfully, and in the perfect repose of exhaustion, and the superbly executed and fancied half-length of a beautiful woman in a Persian dress, called Shireen (223) - will more than sustain the reputation of this artist, high as that is'' (595). The reviewer for The Illustrated London News singled out Burton’s drawing for praise: ''Mr. Burton is represented by a drawing of a sleeping contadina, skilfully foreshortened, and glowing with rich yet sober harmony of colour'' (447).
Bibliography
Stephens, Frederic George. “Society of Painters in Water Colours.” The Athenaeum no. 2062 (May 4, 1867): 595.
“Society of Painters in Water Colours.” The Art Journal (1867): 146-47.
“Fine Arts. Exhibition of the Society of Painters in Water Colours.” The Illustrated London News 50 (May 4,1867): 447.
Last modified 11 April 2022