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.. | Price:
$21.00
US ($24.00 CDN) Quantity: 1 Dimensions: 12 1/2" X 9 1/2" Image 9" X 6" Description: Steel engraving from the Art Journal 1877. Painter: George H. Boughton Engraver: William E. Marshall
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| "The subject of Mr. Boughton's picture of "Hester Prynne and Pearl", representing them on their way to Governor Bellingham's, ... is drawn from Hawthorne's well-known story of "The Scarlet Letter", and as a composition it shows taste, thought and study. The unfortunate heroine Hester is shown passing along the village-street accompanied by her child and shunned by the people. The old woman at the cottage-gate hobbles into the dooryard pushing her maiden daughter before her, as if fearful of contamination from contact with the gentle-faced Hester; the carpenter stops his work as his eyes follow her retreating form; and even the little children pause in their play to look at the outcast. Little Pearl, the child who clings to Hester's arm, looks around appealingly as if wondering why they are shunned by the villagers... The interest is concentrated in the unfortunate Hester and her child, and all the other figures and objects are subordinate to this group. She bears the sign of her sin upon her breast, but her face is not brazen , nor scowling, notwithstanding the cruel glances which greet her presence and embitter her life. She is quiet and resigned in her humiliation and bears her cross with patience. This picture was painted, we believe, shortly after Mr. Boughton went to live in London, and in the graceful figure of Hester, and in the sense of motion in her stately walk, we see the same ideal which he has so often introduced in his later pictures... Mr. Boughton went to Europe in 1858, and, after studying under the influence of Edouard Frere for a time, settled permanently in London in 1861." (Art Journal 1877) | |||||
