Study by Valentine Prinsep

Study of a standing girl in eighteenth-century costume, seen from behind

Valentine Cameron Prinsep, 1838-1904

mid 1870s

Black and white chalk on blue paper

Approximately 16 x 10 inches, 41 x 25.5 centimetres (irregularly shaped)

This drawing is a preparatory sketch for A bientot, which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1876, number 31. The present drawing is for the principal figure in the left hand side of the painting. The elegant manners and decorative sack back dresses of the eighteenth century exerted an important influence on the fashions of the aesthetic movement in the period around 1880. Prinsep began to use eighteenth century themes in the late 1860s and this and the following drawing from the mid 1870s should be seen in the context of aestheticism [Morgan and Nahum, 125].

Bibliography

Morgan, Hilary and Nahum, Peter. Burne-Jones, The Pre-Raphaelites and Their Century. London: Peter Nahum, 1989. Catalogue number 126.

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Last modified 10 November 2002