The Little Water Carrier

William Bell Scott

1863

Oil on canvas

20 x 16 inches (50.7 x 40.5 cm)

Collection of National Gallery of Canada, accession no. 14828.

This painting shows a young girl at dusk going to gather a pail of water from a well and projects a mood of both solitude and quietude. The background shows Penkill Castle in Ayrshire in the distance. As in his earlier work, Scott treats the trees and foliage with the meticulous detail for which the first phase of Pre-Raphaelitism was known. — Dennis T. Lanigan