Joseph Farquharson R.A.

London, Royal Academy, 1877, no. 1017

The canvas has been lined. On close inspection there is some minor craquelure in various places. There is some minor frame abrasion to the extreme edges. Otherwise the work is in good condition. Ultraviolet light reveals some areas of retouching to areas around the edges and in the lower right corner around the signature. There are some further spots to the trees in the central section of the work. There are some fluorescent areas to the snow but this is likely to by intrinsic to the original pigment rather than as a result of restoration. Held in a decorative gold painted composite frame in fair condition.
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When Snow the Pasture Sheets was extremely well received when it was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1877, the only work which he exhibited in that year, described by one reviewer as "excellent in the grouping of the sheep, very still and true to nature in her winter's rest." Farquharson knew his genre intimately and had often painted out among the blizzards and the snow drifts, wrapped up against the cold and absorbed wholly in his love of painting and of capturing the subtle nuances of light upon glittering snow. 'There is not one of Farquharson's pastoral landscapes which is not treated from the contemplative or poetic point of view: the poetry of snow either in its suggestion of desolation, or of the endurance of peasantry life, or the exquisite beauty of rare tints in the sun or moon on deep snow surfaces and seen through leafless trees... and the varied voices with which Nature elevates us from the prosaic, the commonplace and the ugly in her countless moods.' (Archdeacon William Macdonald Sinclair, D.D., The Art of Joseph Farquharson, A.R.A., Christmas edition of The Art Annual, 1913, pp. 1-2)Archdeacon Sinclair concludes his assessment of Farquharson's career with admiration for Farquharson's ability to convey the drama and beauty when weather and lighting combine to display nature at its most impressive; 'Throughout the long and pleasant list there is a sense of reverence for the secrets of Nature, sympathy for her various moods, joy in her winds and storms, sunshine and moonlit mysteries, with the ready command of experience and craftsmanship, and the enthusiasm of the devout lover.' (Ibid, Sinclair, p. 30)

Joseph Farquharson was born in Edinburgh in 1836, the younger son of Francis Farquharson a doctor in the city and laird of the estate of Finzean. He was educated in Edinburgh and permitted by his father to paint only on Saturdays using his father's paint box and at the age of twelve was given his very own set of paints. Only a year later, in 1861, the young artist exhibited his first painting at the Royal Scottish Academy. The Scottish animal painter Peter Graham became his tutor and taught him for over twelve years and the influence of Graham's wild landscapes and intelligent depiction of animals within it, was deep and lasting upon Farquharson. In 1873 Farquharson travelled to Paris and like many artists of his generation he undertook a period of study in the atelier of a French academician, in his case the great Carolus-Duran. When Snow the Pasture Sheets is an important and impressive painting by Joseph Farquharson, an artist who is as synonymous with the depiction of winter scenes as John Atkinson Grimshaw is with autumn nocturnes or as Henry Scott Tuke is with sunny summer afternoons. This painting conveys with dexterity and poetry the elements that make his work so enduringly popular and respected. The wintry landscape with its deep drifts of snow and meandering flocks of sheep and the rosy hues of dawning or gloaming light are the signature elements of Farquharson's greatest works and here they are rendered with great sophistication and technical virtuosity. Although Farquharson sometimes deviated from his depictions of sheep in the snow, it was these images around which visitors to the Royal Academy exhibitions crowded. Prints of winter scenes by Farquharson were sold in their thousands by the likes of Frost and Reed who printed over thirty different engravings after work by Farquharson. 'Mr Farquharson has never forgotten that special genre which has brought him so much pleasure and distinction' (Ibid Sinclair, p. 28) referring to his preoccupation with scenes of shepherds in the highland snow. It was this subject in the artist's work and the stories of him painting at his easel set up in a mobile studio amid blizzards with herds of sheep tethered to the ground before him that led to his nickname 'Frozen Mutton Farquharson'.  (Ibid Sinclair, p. 30)