The Fruit Bearer. 1864. Oil on canvas. 9 x 7 1/2 inches (23 x 19 cm). Collection of Wolverhampton Art Gallery, accession no. OP379. Image reproduced via Art UK for the purpose of non-commercial research. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
This painting shows Hodgson being influenced by Venetian High Renaissance painting, similar to many of the painters associated with the early Aesthetic Movement at that same time in the 1860s such as Frederic Leighton, G. F. Watts and Val Prinsep. It is somewhat reminiscent, for example, of Frederic Leighton's Eucharis [Girl With a Basket of Fruit] that he exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1863, no. 406. It does not appear, however, that Hodgson exhibited The Fruit Bearer at any of the principal London venues. It probably would have been suitable for the Dudley Gallery but it did not hold its first exhibition of Cabinet Pictures in Oil until 1867. This painting would undoubtedly have been considered too "sketchy" to be acceptable to the Royal Academy hanging committee. Even Leighton's much more finished Eucharis had failed to please all of his artistic contemporaries because of its radical departure from current painting norms. In a letter to his mother Leighton wrote: "You would be pleased at the reception of my Fruit Girl by my brother artists – you must understand, though, that this applies chiefly to the younger men (and not to all of them), for there are several of the older painters who strongly object to my style of painting and are bent on suppressing it" (qtd. in Newall 45). Another similar example would be Val Prinsep's A Girl Carrying Grapes of 1862 that sold at Sotheby's in 2009. Although this work was not exhibited at the Royal Academy Hodgson may well have seen it since Prinsep was an honourary member of the St. John's Wood Clique. The Fruit Bearer appears to be the sole example of Hodgson being influenced by the Aesthetic Movement.
Bibliography
The Fruit Bearer. Art UK. Web. 16 January 2024.
Newall, Christopher. The Art of Lord Leighton. Oxford: Phaidon, 1990.
Victorian and Edwardian Art. London: Sotheby's (17 December 2009): lot 15, 21.
Created 16 January 2024