The Great Lady, by George John Pinwell (1842-1875). 1873. Watercolour and gouache on paper; 22 x 32½ inches (56 x 83 cm). Private collection. [Click on all the images to enlarge them.]
Unlike his Idyllist colleagues Walker and North, Pinwell not only painted scenes from contemporary life but also treated imaginative, historical and literary themes. The Great Lady, was exhibited at the Old Water-Colour Society in 1873, no. 123, and later at Pinwell's memorial exhibition held at Deschamps' Gallery in 1876, no. 44. When it was exhibited at the O.W.S. The Art Journal, found it disappointing: "By G. J. Pinwell there is but one drawing, The Great Lady (123), who is dressed as of the sixteenth century, and with a stately gait walks onward, receiving the homage of the inhabitants and the bystanders, and distributing alms to whom she thinks fit. This, it will be understood, differs greatly from those light and spirited sketches which took the form of book-illustrations, and which for their originality commanded universal admiration. It is in everything opposite to those, being dark and heavy, the result, it may be presumed, of what is to be considered finish" (173).
F. G. Stephens in The Athenaeum, reviewed the picture extensively and considered it by far the most powerful and vigorous of the artist's works:
"The picture which will be most noticed by visitors to this Exhibition is Mr. Pinwell's The Great Lady, (123). We have never been among those who have felt unreserved admiration for the former productions of Mr. Pinwell; indeed, we have been not seldom shocked by evidences of mannerism predominating over study of nature, affectation in execution, and a freakish style, to say nothing of carelessness of design, and even of conception, which it was hard to digest and impossible to praise. Nevertheless, The Great Lady fulfils the expectations formed of an able painter whose merits we have fully acknowledged. Putting aside as inevitable the existence of an amazing and pervading purple tint, the prevalence of which must be due a peculiar power of vision, – power the possession of which we do not envy Mr. Pinwell, - and accepting the slightness of many parts of the work as due to recent and severe illness, and to be remedied by-and-by, we must admit that here, indeed, are admirable conception and fine execution, almost sufficient to overcome the mannerism which remains, and the peculiarity of vision we have mentioned. A lady, in a mediaeval costume, but with a beautiful modern face, walks along the rough street of a village, past the shops and booths; she is at once stately, sweet, and fair. A certain self-consciousness does not mar the normal ease of her pose, nor does it matter that her loveliness has passed the fullness of its splendour, while so much that is noble remains. She is the object of the reverence and criticism of several people. One or two men salute her, while two women, behind her back, are giving expression to what comes uppermost in their minds about her or her dress. A page follows, bearing a book, and is doubtless intended to suggest that she has been to church, and is now on her way home. This is by far the most powerful and vigourous of the artist's works. It has, with the exception of the unfinished figures, more solidity, and shows more thorough painting, as a whole, than any picture of his we have seen. There is, besides, plenty of a quality of which the artist has hitherto shown but little, we mean spontaneity of conception. Usually his productions have been deficient in this respect. This picture shows homogeneity of design that is rare with Mr. Pinwell; the figures compose well, the colouring is broader than usual. [572]
Left: Closer view of the "great lady and her young servant." Right: Closer view of the bystanders.
A reviewer for The Architect, considered this one of the most important figure drawings in the Exhibition: "Mr. Pinwell's style is dainty, charmingly affected, original, thoughtful. He delights in grace, and he delights in quaint uncouthness; his Great Lady, gathers her silken robes about her in a stately serenity; her lovely face is set above the long throat like a flower on its stem; the villagers doff cap, curtsey, and are lost in reverent admiration. The little picture is Shakespearean in completeness of character-painting. As to technical merits and manner, Mr. Pinwell still treats extremities in a queer fashion; he seems tired of his figures when he has come to the feet, and rubs them in after an indefinite fashion peculiar to himself. Then he abhors outlines as nature a vacuum, and his mode of execution is still rather scratchy and muddled. But these technical defects seem year by year to lessen, and no one, we most of all, would wish so original an artist to merge his individuality of thought or manner into the smooth sameness of the average popular artist. [231]
The Illustrated London News, reiterated Pinwell's allegiance to the Idyllic school with Fred Walker at its head:
Mr. Pinwell does not follow Mr. Walker so closely as formerly in the remarkable drawing No. 123. In this work there is much less of that hardness of outline which the numerous young, water-colour painters belonging to the same school as Mr. Pinwell, both here and at the neighbouring gallery, seem to have become addicted to from the practice of drawing on wood, where the contours are often given in sharp pencil lines, and the gradations in soft washes. There is also less of that general flatness only proper in mural decoration. Above all, the work is pervaded by an admirably rich, mellow tone. The subject represents a 'Great Lady' in a sumptuous costume of the fifteenth century, followed by a page, bearing a pet dog on an embroidered cloth, walking with lofty mien through a village street, heedless of the obeisance paid her by poor wayfarers and small shopkeepers, male and female. The character of the figures is, as usual, carefully studied. [422]
Bibliography
Esposito, Donato. Frederick Walker and the Idyllists. London: Lund Humphries, 2017, 58.
"Fine Arts: Watercolour Exhibitions; The Old Society." The Illustrated London News, LXII (May 3, 1873): 422-23.
"The Society of Painters in Watercolours." The Art Journal, New Series XII (June 1873): 173–74.
Stephens, Frederic George. "Fine Arts: The Society of Painters in Watercolours" The Athenaeum No. 2375 (May 3, 1873): 571-73.
"The Water-Colour Societies. – Summer Exhibitions." The Architect, IX (May 3, 1873): 231-232.
Williamson, George C. George J. Pinwell and His Works,. London: George Bell & Sons, 1900, 21 & 58.
Created 14 May 2023