La Biccolante: A Venetian water-carrier, 1879

William Frederick Yeames RA (1835 - 1918)

RA Collection: Art

Yeames undertook much of his artistic training in Florence and Rome before setting up a studio in London in 1859. He is best known for costumed incidents from domestic life, his most acclaimed painting being the English Civil War subject, And When Did You Last See Your Father (1878; Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool). In La Biccolante, the artist’s Diploma Work, Yeames seemed to return to the Italian influences of his early training, depicting, according to the Magazine of Art, ‘one of the white marble wells so familiar to travellers’ and a girl clad in a picturesque Venetian costume. It is possible however that the setting was adapted from studies made at Hever Castle in Kent, a favourite location of the artist.