Cartoon for 'Noon in the Hayfield', ca. 1891

Sir George Clausen RA (1852 - 1944)

RA Collection: Art

This drawing of a seated girl, probably Rose Grimsdale, relates directly to the composition Noon in the Hayfield (c. 1891; private collection), in which a young red-haired girl wearing a white dress sits in an orchard with a bonnet on the grass in front of her and a rake leaning against a tree to her right. The drawing appears to have been used as a cartoon as it is squared-up and the composition outline was apparently transferred to canvas by first rubbing the verso with chalk and then heavily outlining the principal objects of the composition on the recto. The background of the finished work differs from this sketch by including a couple of haymakers rather than haystacks shown here.

There is a very similar watercolour version of this composition titled Idleness (private collection) that was sold at the R.W.S. Winter Exhibition 1891 and a related composition known as Girl in a Field (probably c. 1891; National Museum of Wales, Cardiff). The composition of a girl in a white dress seated in an orchard or field ultimately derives from Brown Eyes (1891; Tate Britain), the major work from this period featuring Rose Grimsdale as the model.

Further reading

Kenneth McConkey, Sir George Clausen R.A., 1852-1944 (exhibition catalogue, Cartwright Hall, Bradford; Royal Academy of Arts, London; Bristol City Art Gallery; Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, 1980) pp. 66-67