George ClausenStudy for Noon in the Hayfield

Signed and dated 'G.C. 1891' in black chalk at lower right.

This beautiful pastel study of a young farm girl (Rosie Grimsdale) sitting languidly in a shaded orchard epitomizes Clausen's concept of the bucolic idyll, as much as his continued exploration into European post-impressionism. It is a scene that he worked up in 1891 as well as other studies in pencil and watercolour studies (there are four known studies in total), culminating in his magnificent oil Noon in the Hayfield of 1898.