Benjamin Marshall

Catalogue entry

T03432 INTERIOR OF A BARN WITH A MILKMAID AND FARM LABOURER c.1820

Oil on canvas 34 9/16 × 41 (877 × 1041)
Inscribed ‘MAR’ and ‘SHALL’ upside down on two feed bags t.l.
Bequeathed by Mrs F. Ambrose Clark from the collection of the late F. Ambrose Clark through the British Sporting Art Trust 1982
Prov: ...; D. Lewis, sold anonymously Christie's 2 July 1928 (76) bt Hugh Blaker; E.J. Rousuck, from whom purchased by F. Ambrose Clark by 1958; his widow Mrs F. Ambrose Clark
Exh: Tate Gallery, August–September 1982, and York City Art Gallery, March–September 1984, with other paintings from Mrs F. Ambrose Clark's Bequest (no catalogue)
Lit: [E.J. Rousuck], The F. Ambrose Clark Collection of Sporting Paintings, privately printed, New York 1958, p.170 (as ‘Rural Courtship’), repr. p.171; Aubrey Noakes, Ben Marshall, Leigh-on-Sea 1978, p.59, no.272

Some uneveness in this work has prompted suggestions that it is partly or even wholly the work of the artist's son, Lambert Marshall. The compiler believes it to be wholly by Ben Marshall, possibly painted during the period when he was recovering from serious injuries sustained in a mail-coach accident in 1819.

Published in:
The Tate Gallery 1982-84: Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions, London 1986

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