The Pastoral Play
1888
Medium
Etching with foul biting in blue-green on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Image/plate: 15.9 × 21.8 cm (6 5/16 × 8 5/8 in.); Sheet, with signature tab: 16.5 × 21.3 cm (6 1/2 × 8 7/16 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
210907
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Lady Archibald Campbell, born Janey Sevilla Callander, was an aristocratic patron of Whistler’s and the subject of three etchings and one pastel by Roussel. She performed in pastoral plays (outdoor theater), which she and her husband produced; this etching shows her at right, in the role of Pierrot in Théodore de Banville’s Le baiser. The play was performed on August 8, 1888, in Cannizaro Wood in the London suburb of Wimbledon. Part of the audience that day, Roussel apparently created the sketch...
About the Artist
Theodore Roussel · 1847–1926
Theodore Casimir Roussel was born on 23 March 1847 in Lorient, Brittany, France, into a naval family. After serving in the Franco-Prussian War, he began painting in 1872 as an entirely self-taught artist, initially rendering scenes of daily life in the meticulous style of the Old Masters. In 1878, he settled permanently in London, where he immersed himself in the vibrant British art scene. There, ...