A Venetian Girl

Sir Samuel Luke Fildes, R. A. (1844-1927)

c. 1877

Chalk

12 ½ x 8 ¾ inches

Provenance: The artist's son, Geoffrey Fildes; Ruth Johnstone; Peter Nahum; Bryan Steele

This drawing dates from about 1877, for it closely relates to his painting A Venetian Flower Girl that Fildes exhibited that year. His visits to Venice, often with his brother-in-law the painter Henry Woods, led him to meet Whistler, and then Sargent, who arrived later from Paris. Although the British contingent of artists working there were initially unimpressed by the Americans, Fildes spent some time with Sargent in his studio, and was soon captivated by his ‘Impressionist’ style. His drawings lost the anecdotal manner of those he made earlier for The Graphic magazine, and became larger, more broadly treated and more spontaneous. This drawing was given to Fildes’s son Geoffrey in the year of the artist’s death. — The Maas Gallery