GREENAWAY, Kate, artist

'Five Small Girls Dancing Among Rose Bushes'

[Hampstead, London]: , 1890. Item #06008

'Five Small Girls Dancing Among Rose Bushes'
By Kate Greenaway

GREENAWAY, Kate, artist. 'Five Small Girls Dancing Among Rose Bushes'. Original pen ink and watercolor. Signed with initials “K.G.” at lower left. [Hampstead, London, ca. 1890].

Landscape (9 7/8 x 14 1/8 inches; 251 x 358 mm). Image size: 2 1/8 x 6 13/16 inches; 55 x 173 mm. Matted, framed, and glazed.

A delicate and charming original watercolor by Kate Greenaway, depicting five young maidens in Empire-line dresses and wide-brimmed straw bonnets, holding hands as they dance in a row among tall rose bushes. Executed with Greenaway’s characteristic lightness of line and pastel palette - pale blues, rose-pinks, and creams - this composition epitomizes her idyllic vision of childhood.

A remarkable example of Kate Greenaway in her prime period.

Greenaway’s children, immortalized in works such as Under the Window (1879), A Day in a Child’s Life (1881), and Marigold Garden (1885), defined the image of late-Victorian childhood. Drawing inspiration from late eighteenth- and Regency fashions, as seen in the child portraits of John Hoppner and others, Greenaway created a style so distinctive that Liberty of London adapted her designs for actual children’s clothing. Her imagery influenced an entire generation of parents, artists, and illustrators, and continues to shape the iconography of the “Golden Age” of children’s illustration.

Kate Greenaway (1846-1901) was elected a member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours in 1889, recognition of her stature as both an illustrator and fine artist. Today, her original signed watercolors are scarce, with the majority housed in institutions such as the Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Museum.
A fine, original watercolor, beautifully preserved, and an exemplary specimen of Greenaway’s art at its most enchanting.

Price: $8,500.00