Photograph by Ed Pollard, Hasselblad H4D50 - 2012.

War Time

Artist Briton Rivière (English, 1840 - 1920)

CultureEnglish

Date1874

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions43 1/2 x 49 in. (110.5 x 124.5 cm)
Overall, Frame: 58 1/2 x 64 1/2 x 5 in. (148.6 x 163.8 x 12.7 cm)

Inscribedlower right: Briton Riviere / 1874 verso: Briton Riviere / 5 Marlborough Road / St. Johns Wood… verso: War Time / Over valley and wold / Wherever I turn my head / There’s a mildew and a mould, / The Sun’s going our overhead, / And I’m very old. / And Tommy’s dead.” / Sydney Dobell

Credit LineMuseum purchase

Object number2011.9

On View

On view

DescriptionThis is an oil on canvas painting. In the foreground, a man leans against a stone wall holding a letter. Behind him, his dog looks up expectantly. In the background, another dog waits in the snow in front of a gate further down the wall. It is signed and dated 'Briton Riviere/1874' on the lower right (also inscribed on old labels on reverse).
Label TextBriton Rivière English, 1840–1920 War Time, 1874 Oil on canvas Briton Rivière achieved fame for his heartfelt depictions of dogs, and it is the devoted dogs in this painting that tell us there is something amiss with their master. Like them, we look at the old sheepherder, wondering why he has abandoned his distant flock and retreated to his farmyard. The newspaper in his hand provides the grim answer. It reports the death of his son in battle. Museum purchase 2011.9ProvenanceArtist; Edward North Buxton M.P., of Knighton, Buckhurst Hill; his sale Christie's March 10, 1916, lot 93; Private collection ("Booker"), United Kingdom (89 pounds and 50 pence); In trade, Thomas Agnew and Sons, London (date unknown); private collection; Bonhams, London, November 15, 2005, lot 74 (86,240 pounds - $150,057); Sotheby’s, London, December 11, 2007, lot 8 (estimate 80,000 – 120,000 pounds ($160,000 – 240,000), bought in); Sotheby’s, London, May 17, 2011, lot 48 (estimate 25,000 – 35,000 pounds ($40,750 – 57,050), bought in.); purchased by Jack Kilgore & Co, Inc, gallery, New York; purchased by the Chrysler Museum of Art, 2011Exhibition HistoryRoyal Academy, London, no. 89, 1875 Published References_The Graphic_, London, March 27, 1875. _The Times_, London, May 1, 1875. _Henry Blackburn, Academy Notes, with Forty Illustrations of Some of the Principal Pictures at Burlington House_, London, 1875, p. 10 (illustrated). W. M. Rossetti, “The Royal Academy Exhibition,” _The Academy, A Weekly Review of Literature, Science, and Art_, London, June 1875, p.590. P. W., “Artist and Critic,” _Frazier’s Magazine_, August 1875, pp. 259-260. John Ruskin, _Notes on Some of the Principal Pictures Exhibited in the Rooms of the Royal Academy_, London, 1875.