The Billet-Doux

Artist Thomas Alexander Ferguson Graham (Kirkwall, Orkney, Scotland, 1840 - 1906)

Date1869

Mediumoil on canvas

ClassificationsPaintings And Drawings

DimensionsOverall: Height: 78 cm, Width: 62.7 cm
Frame: Height: 104 cm, Width: 90.2 cm

AcquisitionAlexander Macdonald Bequest, 1901.

CopyrightOut of copyright - CC0

LocationView by Appointment - Aberdeen Treasure Hub

Object numberABDAG002236

Keywords

About MeThomas Graham trained in Scotland under Robert Scott Lauder, but in 1863 he moved to London where he shared a home with two better-known pupils of Lauder - Sir William Quiller Orchardson and John Pettie.

This is a sentimental painting, depicting a young girl walking with her aged companion. Behind them approaches the girl's admirer to whom she is about to pass a love letter, the billet-doux, daintily tied with a red ribbon.

With its soft colours, eighteenth-century dress and sentimental subject matter, this work owes much to the influence of Orchardson, who also painted romantic scenes in which the protagonists wore period dress.

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The trials and tribulations of young love.