The Linen-Gatherers by Valentine Cameron Prinsep, 1838-1904. c. 1878. Oil on canvas. Source: 1883 Magazine of Art.[Click on image to enlarge it.]
The Magazine of Art critic enthused, that this painting was “one of the most attractive Academy pictures of its year. The breezy subject is pleasant, and the composition has that processional movement, added to quaint zigzag forms, which always takes the eye. The artist was happy, too, in treating, with only slight idealisation, one of the few paintable passages of English country-life still unhackneyed, because unsought by the conventional lovers of the picturesque. His linen-gatherers straggle homewards over the downs with the gait and action of nature ; and this rare merit is united with solidity of drawing and of execution” (406).
Image capture, caption, and formatting by George P. Landow. [You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the Internet Archive and the University of Toronto Library and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
Meynell, Wilfrid. “Val Princep A.R.A.: Painter and Dramatist.” Magazine of Art. 6 (1883): 405-09. Internet Archive version of a copy in the University of Toronto Library. Web. 5 September 2013.
Last modified 5 September 2013