Briton Rivière, R.A. 1840-1920

London, Royal Academy of Arts, 1894, no. 608

STRUCTURE: Relined. SURFACE: Fine surface craquelure appears in areas mainly in the top half of the canvas otherwise it appears stable. The painting is in good clean condtion. Some of the impasto has been flattened by the relining. UV LIGHT: Some retouchings do appear on the model's face and minor retouchings in a few areas elsewhere on the figure. Other retouchings appear in the background but these are minimal. FRAME: Contained in a modern gilt and painted wood frame. COLOUR COMPARISON: The colour appears stronger than the catalogue illustration suggests.
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Following in the footsteps of Sir Edwin Landseer, Briton Riviere successfully combined narrative drama with a close study of animals, painting pictures of wonderful pathos and exquisite beauty.  His greatest pictures can be divided into two distinct groups; those of classical and Biblical drama such as Daniel in the Lion's Den (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool) and Persepolis (location unknown) and those like the present work of faithful animals, particularly dogs.  The most famous of his dog paintings is arguably  Sympathy (Royal Holloway College) in which a little girl, seated at the top of a flight of stairs having been banished, is comforted by a small dog. 

The present work continues in a similar vein but is much less sentimental.  The woman is presented in work clothes carrying a bucket and stick with a small flower being the only feminine accoutrement.  The sense of hardship etched on her face is enhanced by the humble surroundings and she stares, lost in thought.  Her introverted melancholic reverie is in stark contrast to the dog who waits with subservient loyalty, expectantly hoping for acknowledgement.  It is the subtle treatment of this often overly sentimental subject matter which lends credibility to Riviere's work.  As Walter Armstrong observes in the Art Annual of 1891, 'His sympathy with dogs is too thorough to permit of their degradation into half-taught actors.  He paints them for what they are, a symbol of what man was once, the rough material of civilisation with virtues and vices yet unblunted  by convention...His interest, in fact, is in the animal's real self.'