Gathering flowers

In August 1892, when popular misconceptions abounded, Charles Wellington Furse launched forth a tirade in support of Impressionism. It had been characterised as a style for charlatans who were using ‘public indignation and disgust as stepping-stones to notoriety’. Impressionists were, according to some, ‘painting with lumps of neat colour’ and indulging in ‘aimless scratching and scrawling’. It was Furse’s objective to counter these misconceptions, and to do so he contrasted the laborious Pre-Raphaelite ‘catalogue of facts’ with the essential, ‘one big truth’ of the ensemble (Albemarle Magazine, August 1892).

As an art student emerging from the Slade School in 1887, he came late to the debate – but early enough to witness the conflicting views expressed around John Singer Sargent’s Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose, 1885-6 (Tate Britain), a work that greatly impressed him. Its message was shortly to be underscored by the arrival of Monet’s first solo exhibition in London and by the winter of 1891 when Furse’s In the Abbey Garden (unlocated) was exhibited at the New English Art Club, two further works by Monet were also on display. At that time Furse had moved briefly to the family house at 1 Abbey Gardens, Westminster, the address on the reverse of the present work. It seems not unlikely that the present sketch was painted at this time since from the following spring until 1899, he would use his studio address in Tite Street, where Sargent was his neighbour and to some extent, mentor.

The present picture, originally part of the contents of the artist’s studio at the time of Furse’s death, was one of a group of works sold from the estate of Rear Admiral John Paul Furse (1904-1978) in Exeter. In large measure its subject matter and handling appears to coincide with Girl with a Parasol which was sold along with the study for Furse’s Diana of the Uplands, 1903-4 (Tate Britain) and other works, by the artist’s descendants,in a second ex-studio group in 1982, in London. Comparisons could well be made between these two garden sketches and those that Sargent produced in preparation for Carnation, Lily … All show clear evidence of a speed in execution that convincingly delivers the overall impression. Here it is conveyed in the dappled sunlight falling on the girl’s dress, that also dramatically catches the handle of her flower basket. In such circumstances, Furse, like Sargent and Monet, was considered a master.

We are grateful to Professor Kenneth McConkey for his assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.