Lot 169: f - WILLIAM RUSSELL BIRCH 1755-1834

THE PROPERTY OF A LADY

THE YOUNG SHEPHERDESS

11 by 10 cm., 4 1/2 by 4 in.

signed (verso): Painted from a Picture of / Sir J. Reynolds's by / W/ Birch / 1782

enamel

NOTE

After the painting by Sir. Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A., (1723-1792) The Young Shepherdess Resting on a Wooden Fence, with her flock before her (see David Mannings, Sir Joshua Reynolds, A complete catalogue of his Painting, 2000, nos. 2162-3, pls. 1700-1701). Interestingly the composition was not engraved by Grozer until 1784 so it is probable that Birch worked directly from the original painting.

Birch exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1781 and 1794, and is recorded as having executed enamel miniatures after the works of Reynolds. Around the date that he last exhibited at the Royal Academy he travelled to America and settled in Philadephia where he died in 1834.