I saw this painting at the Wallace Collection in London.
Reynolds captures the little girl’s innocence and vulnerability in a captivating way, esp. her imploring gaze in our direction. It’s an iconic painting.
She has a little basket in one arm with small red/orangy bits sticking out at the top - the strawberries.
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Notes:
When I saw this painting, it reminded me a little of Rembrandt. I had in mind his Saskia van Uylenburgh. According to the Wallace Collection:
On the streets of 18th-century London, strawberry sellers were a common sight. Frequently depicted in art as women, the strawberry seller in this painting by Reynolds has instead been depicted as a young girl, who has traditionally been identified as the artist’s niece. This is very much in keeping with the contemporary fashion for paintings portraying saints, gods and urchins as infants, which were referred to as ‘fancy pictures’.
For this painting, it is possible Reynolds derived inspiration from the ‘fancy pictures’ of Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725–1805), whose work he saw when he visited Paris in 1771. He might also have influenced by Rembrandt van Rijn’s (1606–1669) paintings of young girls, particularly his popular Young Girl at a Window, which was in Paris for much of the 18th century (but is now at Dulwich Picture Gallery).
It is a nice painting.
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