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Frederic Stacpoole (British, 1813-1907), after Briton Riviere RA (British, 1840-1920) 'Sympathy' image 60.5 x 50cm (23 13/16 x 19 11/16in) (published by Thomas Agnew and Sons, London, on 2 May 1881) image 1
Frederic Stacpoole (British, 1813-1907), after Briton Riviere RA (British, 1840-1920) 'Sympathy' image 60.5 x 50cm (23 13/16 x 19 11/16in) (published by Thomas Agnew and Sons, London, on 2 May 1881) image 2
Frederic Stacpoole (British, 1813-1907), after Briton Riviere RA (British, 1840-1920) 'Sympathy' image 60.5 x 50cm (23 13/16 x 19 11/16in) (published by Thomas Agnew and Sons, London, on 2 May 1881) image 3
The Fox Hall Collection
Lot 53

Frederic Stacpoole
(British, 1813-1907)
after Briton Riviere RA (British, 1840-1920)
'Sympathy'

23 July 2025, 14:00 BST
Edinburgh

£500 - £700

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Frederic Stacpoole (British, 1813-1907), after Briton Riviere RA (British, 1840-1920)

'Sympathy'
signed and dated 'Briton Riviere/1877' (to the plate)
engraving
image 60.5 x 50cm (23 13/16 x 19 11/16in)
published by Thomas Agnew and Sons, London, on 2 May 1881

Footnotes

Sympathy was one of Riviere's most popular compositions. When the original version (Royal Holloway College) was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1878, the critics went out of their way to praise it. The Times, the Illustrated London News, the Magazine of Art, the Graphic, the Academy and the Athenaeum were among its many admirers. Even John Ruskin's resistance to academic painting was overcome by such a winsome image of innocence. As Ruskin states 'It is long since I have been so pleased in the Royal Academy as I was by Mr Briton Riviere's "Sympathy". The dog is uncaricatured doggedness, divine as Anubis, or the Dog-star; the child entirely childish and lovely, the carpet might have been laid in by Veronese. A most precious picture...' (for full details, see Jeannie Chapel, Victorian Taste: the complete catalogue of paintings at the Royal Holloway College, 1982, pp. 126-7.)

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