a shepherdess and her flock
by susan waters
Signed Susan Waters (1823-1900) and dated 1876.
Oil on canvas, original gilt frame
Bordentown, NJ
42” x 54”
After many years as an itinerant painter, Susan Waters and her husband settled permanently in Bordentown NJ in 1866. Here Waters painted animal and still life pictures in a sophisticated and academic style. She exhibited two works of animal subjects at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. After this she became a local celebrity in Bordentown, best known for her renderings of sheep grazing in landscapes of which this is a fine example. Here she has depicted a shepherdess in the face of an oncoming storm leading her sheep and lambs down a hill to safer ground. In her arms is a new lamb, wrapped in a blue cloth. In the distant background, another shepherd is gathering the stragglers behind. In her customary attention to detail, Waters has captured the expressive gazes of the sheep, their wooly coats and the look of concern on the shepherdess's face, all surrounded by a romanticized landscape. A fine, large painting with more drama than most of Waters' other pastoral scenes.
I
Oil on canvas, original gilt frame
Bordentown, NJ
42” x 54”
After many years as an itinerant painter, Susan Waters and her husband settled permanently in Bordentown NJ in 1866. Here Waters painted animal and still life pictures in a sophisticated and academic style. She exhibited two works of animal subjects at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. After this she became a local celebrity in Bordentown, best known for her renderings of sheep grazing in landscapes of which this is a fine example. Here she has depicted a shepherdess in the face of an oncoming storm leading her sheep and lambs down a hill to safer ground. In her arms is a new lamb, wrapped in a blue cloth. In the distant background, another shepherd is gathering the stragglers behind. In her customary attention to detail, Waters has captured the expressive gazes of the sheep, their wooly coats and the look of concern on the shepherdess's face, all surrounded by a romanticized landscape. A fine, large painting with more drama than most of Waters' other pastoral scenes.
I