Goat herder in an Algerian landscape, with the Atlas Mountains in the distance. 1860-61. Watercolour over graphite, heightened with bodycolour, on paper. 24 5/8 x 39 7/8 inches (62 .7x 101.2 cm). Collection of the National Gallery of Canada, accession no. 50790. Image courtesy of the National Gallery of Canada (right click disabled; not to be downloaded).
This subject is an Algerian scene featuring a goat herder in the mid-foreground and with an extensive landscape stretching to the Atlas Mountains in the distance. Barbara Bodichon exhibited approximately 150 Algerian pictures at various venues, which account for more than half of the works that she exhibited publicly. She had first visited Algiers in November of 1856 with two of her sisters, Bella and Nanny, and her brother Ben. Earlier, on January 14, 1856, while staying with Anna Mary Howitt on the Isle of Wight, Barbara had written to her dear friend George Eliot: "I must go to some wilder country to paint – because I believe I shall paint well" (qtd. Hirsch 179). Algeria proved to be a logical choice. Her sister Bella had fallen ill with symptoms of consumption and during the winter months the climate of Algiers was felt to be good for invalids with pulmonary problems. This was to be the first of many winters Barbara was to spend in Algiers.
Hester Burton has written about the attraction of Algiers for Barabara, both in terms of its climate and its artistic possibilities, often quoting from Barbara's own letters:
To compensate for the depressing society of the dying, Algiers had all the warmth and colour of a Southern land to offer its English visitors; and Barbara and her sisters found in them not only excitement and exhilaration but a new inspiration for their art. Accustomed to the gentle curves and quiet hues of the Sussex countryside, the bold outlines of the Little Atlas and the vivid vegetation of the Tell struck them with a delightful wonder…. Nearly ten years later the same spell still held her in thrall. "You know that gum cistus scent in the fresh sea breeze and that azure sea!" she wrote to Nanny [Anne Leigh Smith] in 1865. "And you know how I love all that is graceful and wild in this extraordinary lovely and weird country! It is really one of the most intoxicating places under the sun. There is no doubt of it." … "I have seen Swiss mountains and Lombard plains," wrote Barbara, describing the view from her window, "Scotch lochs and Welsh mountains, but never anything so unearthly, so delicate, so aerial, as the long stretches of blue mountains and shining sea; the dark cypresses, relieved against a background of a thousand dainty tints, and the massive Moorish houses gleaming out from the grey mysterious green of olive trees." [qtd. in Burton, 83-84]
At first Bodichon had experienced some difficulties in developing techniques to deal with the differences between the bluish European light she was used to painting with as compared to the much harsher direct sunlight of Algeria. She almost always worked en plein air. It appears, however, that she soon overcame this problem with the light judging from a review in the Illustrated London News in 1859 regarding the exhibition of a collection of her works at Ernest Gambart's The French Gallery:
Madame Bodichion (formerly Miss Barbara L. Smith), who has long been known as a landscapist of great ability and superior purpose, has just opened an exhibition of some of her works. The series is a highly interesting one, the subjects being taken from the fertile, but hitherto inadequately explored soil of Algeria. Some of the views are of considerable size, and include features of sea, mountain, and forest in admirable combination. The figures introduced heighten the effect by the picturesque costume and impressive character…. Many of the works – and not in themselves the least interesting of the collection – are studies of the peculiar vegetation, flower, shrub, and tree of the place, some of which are extremely beautiful. [105]
Bodichon's solo exhibitions at The French Gallery were generally rewarded with favourable notices in the London press. F. G. Stephens in The Athenaeum in 1861, the same year Goat herder in an Algerian landscape, with the Atlas Mountains in the distance was completed, had these general comments about Barbara's work in Algiers:
Mrs. Bodichon, in Pall Mall, exhibits forty-three drawings of mark. The subjects are mainly found in Algeria, and for powerful rendering of peculiar atmospheric effect, the transcripts from them are eminently successful; they present to us a climatic character always to be found faithfully rendered in this lady's drawings. Singular as these appear, they have a faithfulness and consistency of expression which indicate their complete fidelity. Of course we are to take the system of execution as that of one mind; produced by another, the aspect of the localities would not only probably differ materially through the effect selected for delineation, but in the very sentiment or motive conveyed. [502]
A critic for The Art Journal, however, felt there was still room for improvement in Bodichon's work: "At the French gallery, in Pall Mall, there is a collection of views sketched in the neighbourhood of Algiers, by Mrs. Bodichon, which show some advance on the series exhibited at the same place last season; but there is still much room for improvement, especially in water-forms and tree drawing…. The drawings show enterprise and ambition, and more feeling for effect than power to carry it out" (159).
The most important influence on this particular work would appear to be the Orientalist landscape art of Edward Lear as distinct from that of her former teachers like Cornelius Varley or David Cox. Bodichon would have been familiar with Lear's work from exhibitions because both of them showed at venues like the Royal Academy and the Dudley Gallery. As both were part of the extended Pre-Raphaelite circle it is possible they knew each other personally. Lear had also visited Algeria during his many travels to exotic places.
Bibliography
Appleyard, Kirsten. "Algerian Landscape, with the Atlas Mountains in the Distance." Gathered Leaves, by Sonia Delre and Kirsten Appleyard. Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 2024, cat. 78, 170.
Burton, Hester. Barbara Bodichon 1827-1891. London: John Murray, 1949.
"Fine Arts. The French Gallery." The Illustrated London News XXXV (30 July 1859): 105.
Hirsch, Pam. Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon: Feminist, Artist and Radical. London: Chatto & Windus, 1998.
"Minor Topics of the Month." The Art Journal New Series VII (1 May 1861): 159.
Stephens, Frederic George. "Fine Arts. Mrs. Bodichon's Drawings at the French Gallery." The Athenaeum No. 1746 (13 April 1861): 502.
Created 1 February 2025