Pixies dancing in a Ring by the Firelight
William Bell Scott (Edinburgh 1811 - Penkill Castle 1890)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1885 (monogrammed and signed and dated)
Materials
Oil on paper, wood
Measurements
279 x 381 mm (11 x 15 in)
Place of origin
Scotland
Order this imageCollection
Gunby Hall Estate, Lincolnshire
NT 636787
Summary
Oil painting on paper, Pixies dancing in a Ring by the Firelight (A Kitchen Interior) by William Bell Scott (Edinburgh 1811 - Penkill Castle 1890), monogrammmed, on the middle drawer: WBS and signed, bottom right: W B Scott and dated 1885. A kitchen interior. Pixies dancing in a ring by the firelight and others sitting as audience. Listed 1944 inventory as an oil painting on canvas. On 29th March 1886 William Bell Scott wrote a letter from Penkill, Ayrshire to Henry 'Harry' Buxton Formon (1842 - 1917): "About 3 months ago my friend Vernon Lushington visited me. He had been at the Howards, Naworth Castle, near Carlisle [George James Howard, 9th Earl of Carlisle (London 1843 – Hindhead 1911) and his wife Rosalind ]and came on here in that dreadful weather, since which I have painted a replica of a little oil picture he took a fancy for -- Fairies dancing before a great dying kitchen fire -- 'Haunted House on Midsummer Eve.'" (Getty Research Institute) which confirms that this painting is another version of one that the artist painted in 1851 (exh at RA in 1852; RSA in 1854). (National Trust is grateful to Antony Ryan for this information)
Provenance
1990, purchased from J Montgomery-Massingberd.
Credit line
Gunby Hall, The Montgomery-Massingberd Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
William Bell Scott (Edinburgh 1811 - Penkill Castle 1890), publisher