Myles Birket Foster (Tynemouth 1825 - Weybridge, Surrey 1899)

In this charming depiction of a leisurely moment in a summer afternoon, the eye is drawn towards a young girl, wearing a floral printed dress and blue apron, who rests with her arms behind her head on a worn cobbled step. She is a vision of innocence and youthful abandon, sheltered in a quiet haven and oblivious to the outside world. Her older sister, dressed in darker clothes suitable for work, sits behind her, comforting a small child nestled in the crook of her arm. She points towards a bed of flowers, carefully placed to add to the picturesqueness of the scene, as is the rose bush climbing up the side of the dilapidated cottage and the clumps of grass growing between the stones on the steps. The image speaks of harmony and tranquillity, despite the family’s poverty, which is apparent through the deterioration of their surroundings.

Young Girls Resting on the Steps, Devon is a fine example of the watercolours which Myles Birket Foster was best known for. The artist specialised in idealised scenes of the English countryside and rural life, such as Washing Day at Balmacara, in the Manchester Art Gallery, which is an image of gentle industry that, although revealing a woman in the midst of her chores, has an air of relaxed contentment akin to the present work. The woman bending over her washing tub, wearing a white cap and an apron bunched around her hips, is absorbed in her activity, while her daughter idly passes the time, accompanied by a small dog and three ducks. Like the family in Young Girls Resting on the Steps, Devon, the mother and child in Washing Day at Balmacara are not well off. An upturned boat forms the roof of the hut that stands on the left of the composition and the back of the thatched cottage is unkempt; the disarray, however, along with the soft tones, attractive colouring and delicate employment of highlights in the work, adds to its quaintness.

Foster began life working in his family’s brewing business, until he convinced his Quaker parents to allow him to train as an artist. He was apprenticed to a wood-engraver, Ebenezer Landells (1808-60), for whom he designed blocks for engraving. He also provided designs for Punch and the Illustrated London News, and at the age of twenty-one, he set up independently as an illustrator. Early on, Foster made a name for himself in creating rustic vignettes of the seasons for the Illustrated London News and the Illustrated London Almanack, which proved highly popular. As a result, he was commissioned to illustrate volumes of poetry by Longfellow, Sir Walter Scott and John Milton. His final book illustrations were for Pictures of English Landscapes, commissioned in 1858 and published in 1862, before he began devoting himself to watercolour painting. His watercolour technique, involving stippling rather than the use of broad washes, reflected his training in wood engraving as well as the influence of artists such as William Henry Hunt and John Frederick Lewis. Foster exhibited for the first time at the Society of Painters in Watercolours in London in 1859 and was made an associate the following year, achieving full membership in 1862.