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War Time
Artist:
Briton Rivière
(English, 1840 - 1920)
Date: 1874
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
43 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)
Classification: European art
Credit Line: Museum purchase
Object number: 2011.9
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).
Exhibition HistoryRoyal Academy, London, no. 89, 1875
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 2011.9
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 2011.9
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.
Provenance
Artist; 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, 2011