Daniel Ridgway Knight

Captured in a moment of contemplation, the model for In Her Garden seems the perfect inhabitant for a scene of such pastoral beauty.  Her garden of carefully cultivated flowers lies before an idyllic view of rolling hills.  Although an American, Ridgway Knight soon became one of France’s best-loved practitioners of the popular art of rural painting, by projecting onto an idealized French peasant a symbolic purity of heart, and pride in the land.  

The peasant women that Ridgway Knight depicted were painted from life, but the artist gave them ideal proportions and refined elegance, a legacy from his classical training.  After an early trip to Barbizon, Ridgway-Knight gained a deep appreciation for the plein air technique, and upon his return home to Poissy, he set out to incorporate its principles into his canvases.  He furnished an all-glass studio near his home, and from this point on, Ridgway Knight always painted his models in this studio, his production thereby unaffected by intemperate days.

The model for this work probably lived nearby Poissy, the town where Ridgeway Knight moved after his student days in Paris.  As George Sheldon described in 1888: “Throughout Normandy, Knight is a familiar figure in the field and in the cottage.  A hundred times he has been called upon to act as godfather to the children of his models and, whenever one of them is married, she is sure to receive from Mr. Knight a handsome present in gold.  His habit in this regard is well known among them, and he is able to choose his models—how charming they are!—from a class which usually are not willing to serve in such a capacity,” (George Sheldon, Recent Ideals of American Art, New York and London, 1889, p. 18.)  With his models ensconced in well-worn clothing that was hand-chosen by the artist, Ridgeway Knight gave his humble subjects authentic allure, and created a personal vision of the noble peasant, always reflecting the beauty of nature’s bounty around her.