Elmer Ellsworth Garnsey (1862 - 1946)
- Elmer Ellsworth Garnsey (1862 - 1946)
- Shepherdess in a Field, 1899
- Oil on canvas
- 14 x 18 inches
- Signed and dated 1899, lower right
Shepherdess in a Field, 1899 epitomizes Garnsey's personal preference for painting people and animals in rural settings enhanced with brilliant blue skies and vibrant greenery. Here, a young shepherdess cradles a newborn lamb as she tends her flock who graze in the lush surrounding field. The inclusion of the mother sheep, who gazes up at the girl, is reminiscent of his contemporaneous painting A Village Street in Brittany, which depicts a mother cow alongside her calf in a French village. In producing Shepherdess in a Field, 1899, Garnsey certainly would have been aware of similar scenes by the French academicist, William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825 –1905), who painted numerous works featuring pastoral shepherdesses in a variety of poses and expressions, which were immensely popular among contemporary American collectors.
