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Gathering Dates, Elche

Artist Lady Sophia Dunbar (Cheshire, England, 1814 - 1909)

Date1860

Mediumwatercolour(see notes) on paper

ClassificationsPaintings And Drawings

DimensionsOverall: Height: 35.5 cm, Width: 25.8 cm

AcquisitionPurchased in 1989.

CopyrightOut of copyright

LocationView by Appointment - Aberdeen Treasure Hub

Object numberABDAG008394

Keywords

Landscape

About MeLady Dunbar (1814-1909) was born in Cheshire as Sophia Orred. In 1840, upon her marriage to Sir Archibald Dunbar, she came to live in Elgin on the Moray coast. At this time she received private tuition from a number of drawing masters, including John Le Capelain of Jersey, but it was after the birth of her youngest child in 1859 that her 'career' as a painter began. Her first exhibited works appeared at the Society of Female Artists in 1863 and the Royal Scottish Academy in 1867. Henceforth the subjects of her paintings alternated between landscape views from abroad (the Dunbars were intrepid tourists, travelling as far afield as Spain, Portugal, Gibraltar and Algeria) and rural scenes observed closer to home in Morayshire and Aberdeenshire. When she exhibited for the last time at the Royal Scottish Academy in 1888 she had shown 42 paintings in total, a number which distinguishes her as a leading nineteenth-century lady watercolourist.

This water colour shows the local method of gathering dates at Elche in Spain, which so enthralled Lady Dunbar that she overcame her customary dislike of depicting the human form. Six separate studies show the date-pickers hauling themselves up the tree trunks with the aid of esparto grass ropes. The naturalistic palette renders the colourful array of the traditional costumes, which appear particularly vibrant against the muted hues of the tree trunks. This scene is typical of those published in Lady Dunbar's book recounting her travels in the region, 'A Family Tour round the Coasts of Spain and Portugal'. Therein she demonstrates a keen eye for subject selection, which perhaps also results from the Dunbars' unfaltering inquisitiveness as travellers: Lady Dunbar attended bullfights, survived 14 hours trekking on muleback and mingled with gypsies, whom she found intriguing on account of their superstition (the Aberdonian artist John Phillip, with whom Lady Dunbar met up in Seville, made a sketch of himself drawing a young gypsy girl who poses reluctantly whilst forming a hand gesture to avert the evil eye).