Deborah Cliffe
Senior Sale Coordinator
Lot 36
George Elgar Hicks, RBA(British, 1824-1914)Osier whitening or withy peeling
Amended
31 March 2021, 14:00 BST
London, New Bond StreetSold for £44,000 inc. premium
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George Elgar Hicks, RBA (British, 1824-1914)
Osier whitening or withy peeling
signed and dated 'G.E. Hicks.1857.' (lower right)
oil on canvas
50 x 90cm (19 11/16 x 35 7/16in).
signed and dated 'G.E. Hicks.1857.' (lower right)
oil on canvas
50 x 90cm (19 11/16 x 35 7/16in).
Footnotes
Provenance
The artist.
G. Simms, Bathwick Hill, Bath, purchased from the above for £150.00.
Hahn Gallery, by 1971.
Property of a deceased's estate.
Exhibited
London, Royal Academy, 1857, no. 409.
London, Geffrye Museum, George Elgar Hicks: Painter of Victorian Life, 1 October 1982- 3 January 1983 (travelling to Southampton Art Gallery, 17 January 1983 -22 February 1983), no. 16.
Literature
Art Journal, 1 June 1857, p.172.
Athenaeum, 23 May 1857, p.667.
Art Journal, 1 April 1872, p.97.
Rosemary Treble, George Elgar Hicks: Painter of Victorian Life, exhibition catalogue, London, 1982, p.21, cat. no. 16, illustrated.
When exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1857, the present lot was subtitled 'The preparation of the willow for making baskets is carried on in several countries of England during May and part of June.'
During the nineteenth century, the growing of willows for making baskets, wicker chairs and providing sways (lengths of willow laid horizontally under the thatch to hold each course of thatch in place) was an important rural industry. Harvesting was arduous work as the willows had to be stripped by hand until the process was mechanised in the inter-war years. The willows were peeled using a willow stripper, or brake, which can be clearly seen here, after which they were left in stacks to dry.
Hicks chose to depict this episode of rural life as his Royal Academy exhibit of 1857; in the words of the critic of the Athenaeum: 'Mr Hicks is as idyllic as ever...'1 and this idealised vision of labour is a link between the artist's earlier landscapes and his depictions of modern day life which characterise his paintings of the late 1850s and 1860s. The arrangement of the figures anticipate works such as Dividend Day which was one of six large paintings of modern life that Hicks produced between 1859 and 1865; works which were painted in response to the growing demand for depictions of everyday life following the triumph of Sir William Powell Frith's iconic Ramsgate Sands (Royal Collection) which was the sensation of the 1854 Royal Academy Summer exhibition.
In the present lot we see a frieze of characters hard at work as the landowner surveys the scene. The majority of the workers at this stage of production were women, although Hicks has chosen the handsome couple in the centre of the composition as the main element of the narrative echoing the Victorian values of the reward of happiness for hard work and endeavour. Children are also helping as a labourer approaches with a fresh bundle of reeds on the right hand side of the composition. The village church can be seen beyond the withy beds in the distance, and the whole composition resonates with a bright palette reminiscent of the Pre-Raphaelite celebration of colour and detail.
1Athenaeum, 23 May 1857, p.667.
Saleroom notices
Please note that the authorship of the exhibition catalogue George Elgar Hicks: Painter of Victorian Life should be attributed to Rosamond Allwood and not as printed in the catalogue.
Additional information
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