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John William North

1888–90 · Watercolor with touches of gouache (bodycolor) over graphite · Drawings and Prints

Like his fellow "Idyllists" Frederick Walker and George Pinwell, John William North's early training as an illustrator taught him to render ideas and emotions in evocative landscapes of dreamlike beauty. Here, the artist presents an exquisitely balanced composition: a pensive young woman stands immobilized within a verdant landscape in which only the trees, entangled by pale blossoms, pierce the stillness. Delicately detailed vegetation, close at hand, is contrasted with hazy, less-defined, distant passages. Precise, separate touches of watercolor and gouache stipple the surface of the picture, creating a shimmering effect that enhances the poetic mood. North later wrote in A Theory of Art (published in 1902) that he sought to present the "countless fairy tales told in trees and hills and streams and skies."

Artist

John William North

Date

1888–90

Medium

Watercolor with touches of gouache (bodycolor) over graphite

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Purchase, Sotheby's Gift and funds from various donors, 2000