Lot Essay
Although best known for his exotic still-lifes, Lance painted a number of figure subjects, a reflection of his seven-year training under Benjamin Robert Haydon who would have imbued him with a profound respect for 'history painting'. Infact in 1836 Lance's picture of Melancthon's first Misgivings of the Church of Rome was a prize for 'the best historical picture of the season' at the Liverpool Academy. It was bought by the Liverpool cotton broker George Holt (1790-1861), and its success led to further commissions for similar works. The Maréshal de Birou (R.A. 1845) was painted for Robert Vernon, and the present picture and others for W. J. Broderig (1789-1859), lawyer, naturalist, and an omnivorous collector of the Modern British school whose greatest coup, perhaps, was to secure Holman Hunt's Hireling Shepherd (Manchester) in 1852, a year before the completion of The Village Coquette. Lance's R.A. exhibits also include subjects from Shakespeare, Milton, Hudibras and Gil Blas; and if his interest in subject pictures was inherited from Haydon it was past on in turn to his own pupil, John Gilbert.
Lance's figure subjects usually contain a marked element of still life. Very obvious in a picture like Captain Rolando showing Gil Blas the Treasures of the Cave (R.A. 1839; London art market, 1978), the tendency is still evident in the basket of eggs and other details in The Village Coquette. This is inspired by William Cowper's poem 'The Task' (Book IV 'The Winter Evening':
The rural lass,
Whom once her virgin modesty and grace,
Her artless manners and her neat attire,
So dignified, that she was hardly less
Than the fair shepherdess of old romance,
Is seen no more. The character is lost.
Her head adorn'd with lappets pinn'd aloft
And ribbons streaming gay, superbly raised
And magnified beyond all human size,
Indebted to some smart wig-weaver's hand
For more than half the tresses it sustains;
Her elbows ruffled, and her tott'ring form
Ill propp'd upon French heels; she might be deem'd
(But that the basket dangling on her arm
Interprets her more truly) of a rank
Too proud for dairy-work, or sale of eggs;
Expect her soon with foot-boy at her heels,
No longer blushing for her awkward load,
Her train and her umbrealla all her care.
Cowper was clearly a poet who appealed to Lance since he had already inspired his picture The Microscope, exhibited at the R.A. in 1842 and sold in these Rooms 16 October 1981, lot 28.
Broderip owned at least nine works by Lance but for some reason he parted before his death with both The Village Coquette and another subject picture he had commissioned, The Lady in Waiting, neither appearing at his posthumous sale at Christie's on 11 June 1859. In fact The Village Coquette had left the collection by 1857 when it was lent by its new owner, R. Hemming, to the famous Art Treasures Exhibition at Manchester. Lance was also represented here by one of his fruit-pieces and by George Holt's Melancthon.
Lance's 'remaining works' were sold at Christie's on 27 May 1873, nine years after his death.
Lance's figure subjects usually contain a marked element of still life. Very obvious in a picture like Captain Rolando showing Gil Blas the Treasures of the Cave (R.A. 1839; London art market, 1978), the tendency is still evident in the basket of eggs and other details in The Village Coquette. This is inspired by William Cowper's poem 'The Task' (Book IV 'The Winter Evening':
The rural lass,
Whom once her virgin modesty and grace,
Her artless manners and her neat attire,
So dignified, that she was hardly less
Than the fair shepherdess of old romance,
Is seen no more. The character is lost.
Her head adorn'd with lappets pinn'd aloft
And ribbons streaming gay, superbly raised
And magnified beyond all human size,
Indebted to some smart wig-weaver's hand
For more than half the tresses it sustains;
Her elbows ruffled, and her tott'ring form
Ill propp'd upon French heels; she might be deem'd
(But that the basket dangling on her arm
Interprets her more truly) of a rank
Too proud for dairy-work, or sale of eggs;
Expect her soon with foot-boy at her heels,
No longer blushing for her awkward load,
Her train and her umbrealla all her care.
Cowper was clearly a poet who appealed to Lance since he had already inspired his picture The Microscope, exhibited at the R.A. in 1842 and sold in these Rooms 16 October 1981, lot 28.
Broderip owned at least nine works by Lance but for some reason he parted before his death with both The Village Coquette and another subject picture he had commissioned, The Lady in Waiting, neither appearing at his posthumous sale at Christie's on 11 June 1859. In fact The Village Coquette had left the collection by 1857 when it was lent by its new owner, R. Hemming, to the famous Art Treasures Exhibition at Manchester. Lance was also represented here by one of his fruit-pieces and by George Holt's Melancthon.
Lance's 'remaining works' were sold at Christie's on 27 May 1873, nine years after his death.