John Sell Cotman

A young mother and child, carrying a jug: Study for the figure in the etching 'Part of East Barsham House' - 1817.
c. 1810

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This is a careful study of a young woman, seen full length from the right side, facing right. She is bare-headed and dressed in a simple, loose-fitting pinafore dress, with 'blue stripes' and a short-sleeved blouse in 'wht', carrying a jug in her right arm, and supporting a baby's head in front with her left. Cotman has inscribed the drawing with a colour key, 'x', 'o' , '3', but the inscription corresponding to 'x' (the girl's under-dress) has been trimmed along the top edge when the drawing was cut down for mounting.

Kitson's 1937 catalogue recognised the connection between the drawing and Cotman's etching of 'Part of East Barsham House', published in 1817 as pl.LVII of his series 'Antiquities of Norfolk'. The figure is reversed in the etching. It seems unlikely, however, that the figure was drawn with the etching in mind. The colour notes would suggest that he was thinking more of a watercolour. The figure is somewhat reworked for the etching. The tonal distribution of the dress and pinafore is revised, and the angle of the neck is rendered with greater pathos, and the youth of the figure emphasised.

Previous commentators do not seem to have noticed the baby. Looking from the etching to the present drawing it becomes more evident from the mother's physique that the child must be a very recent arrival, and that the mother must be of a very tender age.

The tousled hair of the girl is quite distinctive. A similar figure appears in another drawing at Leeds (LEEAG.1949.0009.0381). In that drawing she carries a child a few months old, and it is tempting to wonder if this might not be the same mother and child.

This drawing is one of eleven mounted on one large sheet ('XIV') as acquired by Sydney Kitson in 1928. The group comprises of ten drawings of figure subjects plus one windmill in their midst. Quite what might be the rationale for the exception is as yet unclear. Sometime between 1928 and 1937, Kitson mounted them all individually and gave them new numbers for the catalogue drawn up in the latter year (K364-374).

David Hill, October 2017

• Provenance

  One of perhaps two thousand pencil drawings mounted by Cotman on large sheets sometime after 1820 and by descent to the 'Highly important sale by auction of a rare and valuable collection of works of art, by the following artists: John Sell Cotman, Miles Edmund Cotman, Varley, Sillett, Hobart, and Teniers, Pritchett, Hannah, S D Colkett, Nursey, and others.' at Murrell's Bazaar salerooms, Norwich, 26-27 November 1862;

  Charles Muskett, bookseller and printer of Norwich (1804-1856) by whom sold to Mr Orfeur, businessman of Yarmouth and later civil servant;

  [?John] Orfeur and by descent to his son, Mr Herbert Orfeur of the Old House, Wimborne Dorset;

  Herbert Orfeur (d.1945) bought from H Orpen, June 1928 by S.D.Kitson (1871 - 1937);

  S.D.Kitson (1871 - 1937) bequeathed to Leeds Art Gallery and accessioned 1949;

• Published References

  Sydney Decimus Kitson, 'The Catalogue of the Collection of Drawings by J.S.Cotman', 1924-1937, unpublished typescript at Leeds Art Gallery, c.1937, cat.366;

  'Leeds City Art Galleries: Concise Catalogue', (Leeds, Leeds City Council, 1976) cat. 9.369/49;

• Related Objects

  Study of three figures', Leeds Art Gallery, LEEAG.1949.0009.0381;

• Inscriptions

  Support, recto, colour key in graphite by J.S. Cotman, '3' [x3] / 'o' [x1] / 'x' [x1];

  Support, recto, top right colour key in graphite by J.S. Cotman, 'o Wht' / '3 Blue Stripes';

  Mount, recto, in graphite by S.D. Kitson [?], 'Study for the figure in the etching' / 'Part of East Barsham House_1817.';

• Collector's Notes

  Sydney Decimus Kitson, 'The Catalogue of the Collection of Drawings by J.S.Cotman', 1924-1937, unpublished typescript at Leeds Art Gallery, c.1937, cat.366;
  A GIRL WITH A JUG.
  2 3/4" x 6"
  Pencil on medium paper.
  Study for the figure in etching of a part
  of East Barsham Hall. LVII. This plate is
  dated, 1817.
  inscribed "o wt.
  3 blue and white." stripes ? [handwritten note]
  Ex coll: Muskett-Orpen XIV.3.
  June 1928.

• Alternate Numbers

  Other number: 9.369/49
  Previous Number: LEEAG.PA.1949.0009.0369
  Negative Number: 862/62(27a)
  Kitson Number: KITSON.366.XIV.03