John William Waterhouse, R.A., R.I.

Major Alec P. Henderson (acquired directly from the artist in 1911)
Roy Miles Fine Paintings, London
Private American Collection

A.L. Baldry, ‘The Studio’, vol. LXXI, 1917, illustrated p. 8 (as The Piping Boy)
Anthony Hobson, The Art and Life of J.W. Waterhouse, R.A., London, 1980, pp. 131, 133, 191, pl. 127, no. 179, illustrated p. 130
Anthony Hobson, J.W. Waterhouse, London, 1989, p. 89
Peter Trippi, J.W. Waterhouse, New York, 2002, pp. 202-203, 236, 247, no. 177, illustrated p. 202

This painting was originally shown at the Royal Academy in 1911 along with The Charmer. Both paintings depict the strong power music can hold over its listeners. It is no wonder that they were both bought from the artist by Major Alec P. Henderson, who was a loyal patron to Waterhouse and collected many important works of his time including Edward Coley Burne-Jones' Briar Rose series.
 
Listening to My Sweet Pipings is an example of Waterhouse portraying through facial expression and body juxtaposition a brooding sense of inner turmoil. The girl’s eyes do not look directly at the viewer, but are instead glazed over as she gazes off into her own thoughts. The same glassy stare can also be seen in Waterhouse’s paintings of Ophelia and also in the depictions of the Lady of Shallot. The mythical Pan, with eyes fixated on his companion, tries to occupy her mind through music.  Peter Trippi, author of J.W. Waterhouse, states in the catalogue raisonné of the artist's work that Waterhouse “took the title Listening to My Sweet Pipings from Shelley’s Hymn of Pan, in which the sylvan god pipes the world to sleep. Earth’s reclining figure repeats in form the colour the beautifully rendered sky, hills and water.”
 
John William Waterhouse painted a series of paintings that related woman to nature.  Listening to My Sweet Pipings is probably the best known in this series. The woman in Listening to My Sweet Pipings can be interpreted to represent the whole of nature, as every aspect of it can be seen in this painting. She is nestled at its very heart, symbolized by the great diversity in the landscape. Waterhouse did not casually select this background, but very deliberately depicted the main mythological elements of nature such as: streams, forests, fields, mountains, and caves. Rather than being a nymph relating to one, she encompasses them all. The blue and pink fabric she is draped in reflects exactly the colors of the mountains behind her and the dark mauve sash around her waist is reminiscent of an umbilical cord connecting her to her mother Earth, and thereby to the viewers as well.

This catalogue entry was written by Kara Ross.