The Gardener's Daughter

Charles Conder 1868 - 1909

Summary

Garden of a large house, visible in the background. Children playing beneath a large tree to the left, with two young women relaxing on the lawn to right. Young woman carrying basket in centre, on near side of low fence separating her from other figures.

Display Label

The Gardener's Daughter 1902-3 Charles Conder 1868-1909 Oil on canvas The scene is Ferring Grange, near Worthing. The group under the trees is the house party and the girl with the basket, the gardener’s daughter. Conder offers the familiar idea of a low-status, pretty girl intent on her own business, a romantic concept which blithely ignores the full reality of her life. The son of a railway engineer, Conder went to Australia aged 15 to work in a Trigonometrical Survey Camp for two years. Escaping to Sydney, he attended art classes and soon established himself there as an artist. He had moved to Paris by 1890, to live a hard-drinking, bohemian life. He married a wealthy widow in 1901 but, debilitated by syphilis and alcoholism, he did not live long to enjoy his new leisured status. Purchased 1923.53