Joseph Edward Southall

Private Collector (acquired at the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists Exhibition, 1933)
Sale: Christie's, London, March 6, 1986, lot 37, illustrated 
Private Collection (acquired at the above sale)
Sale: Sotheby's, New York, May 23, 1997, lot 149, illustrated
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

London, New Gallery, Summer Exhibition, 1904
Liverpool, Autumn Exhibition, 1904, no. 1192
Oldham, Spring Exhibition, 1905, no. 245
Paris, New Salon, 1906, no. 1129
Birmingham, Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, Spring Exhibition, 1908, no. 228
Nottingham, Pictures by British Artists, 1908, no. 3
Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, Peintures et Dessins par Joseph E. Southall, 1910, no 4
Shepherd's Bush, Coronation Exhibition, 1911, no. 57
London, Alpine Club, Paintings and Drawings in Tempera, Watercolour, Pastel, etc. by Joseph Southall, 1933, no. 30
Manchester, City Art Gallery, Paintings by Joseph Southall, 1922, no. 18
Bradford, Corporation Art Gallery, Jubilee Exhibition, 1930, no. 273
Birmingham, Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, Special Exhibition of Works by Joseph Southall, 1933, no. 30
London, The Fine Art Society, A Group of Birmingham Painters and Craftsmen, 1907, no. 67
Birmingham, City Museum and Art Gallery; The Fine Art Society, Joseph Southall 1861-1944, no. 87

H. Stokes, "A Modern Gozzoli," The Lady's Realm, XVII, November 1904, p. 23, illustrated
A. Finch, "The Paintings of Joseph Southall," The Studio, LXXXI, July 1917, p. 48, illustrated

Unlined, a few scattered pindots of loss, semi-circular scuff to left of man's head, a few dark pindots to her blue wrap; under UV: no apparent inpainting.
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The subject of Joseph Southall's The Nut Brown Maid is taken from a fifteenth-century English folk ballad which celebrates the true and loving heart of a young girl. Her suitor, dressed for a journey, has told her that he must become an outlaw living in the greenwood, and must leave her to be 'alone, a bayshed man'. She, not suspecting that this is a ruse to test her devotion, announces her intention to go with him and nothing he can say about the dangers and hardships of such a life can dissuade her. Finally the lover admits his deceit and reveals that instead of being beyond the law he is in fact the son of an earl.

The poem has been a staple of English popular balladry since it appeared in Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry in 1765, and has been burlesqued by other poets including Matthew Prior in his 'Henry and Emma' of 1709. Such a quintessentially English artist as Southall, whose landscapes and figure subjects reveal an unchanging face of English life, must have found this legend particularly appealing, which is so deeply rooted in English folk-lore.

A study for the painting, almost equally precise and carefully composed, was lent to the 1980 Southall exhibition by the Fine Arts Society, London, as was also a drawn study of the face of the Maid in the finished composition.