An Interesting English Naí¯ve Portrait of a Cobbler in his shoe shop . Oil on Canvas
An Interesting English Naí¯ve Portrait of a Cobbler in his shoe shop . Oil on Canvas
Late 18 th Century
Size : 56 cm high , 46 cm wide – 22 ins high , 18 ins wide
Late 18 th Century
Size : 56 cm high , 46 cm wide – 22 ins high , 18 ins wide
The social documentary contained in vernacular paintings such as this widens our historical knowledge of the period as no other medium can . The table is laid out with tools of the cobbler's trade and leather boots to be mended . He wears handmade shoes fitted with fashionable buckles that seem to affirm his professional status as shoe maker and mender .
In England and America folk artists depicted daily life , whereas in Europe they tended to paint devotional or 'ex voto' pictures . In the 18 th and early 19 th centuries there existed a great demand for vernacular scenes and portraiture , and until the invention of commercial photography in 1839 with the process of the daguerreotype , this market was met by itinerant artists or 'limners' working in the provinces .
In Oliver Goldsmiths 'The Vicar of Wakefield' ( 1766 ) , the vicar's neighbours , the Flamborough's 'had lately got their pictures drawn by a limner , who travelled the country and took likenesses for 15 shillings a head'.
These were not so much fine 'pictures' as representations of people in their appropriate social settings going about their ordinary lives . Photography removed the necessity for these vernacular works of art and Britain subsequently lost the naí¯ve popular art form of its provinces .
In England and America folk artists depicted daily life , whereas in Europe they tended to paint devotional or 'ex voto' pictures . In the 18 th and early 19 th centuries there existed a great demand for vernacular scenes and portraiture , and until the invention of commercial photography in 1839 with the process of the daguerreotype , this market was met by itinerant artists or 'limners' working in the provinces .
In Oliver Goldsmiths 'The Vicar of Wakefield' ( 1766 ) , the vicar's neighbours , the Flamborough's 'had lately got their pictures drawn by a limner , who travelled the country and took likenesses for 15 shillings a head'.
These were not so much fine 'pictures' as representations of people in their appropriate social settings going about their ordinary lives . Photography removed the necessity for these vernacular works of art and Britain subsequently lost the naí¯ve popular art form of its provinces .
An Interesting English Naí¯ve Portrait of a Cobbler in his shoe shop . Oil on Canvas
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