Photos: Jonathan Russell.
“The many pictures and sketches by which [Mrs. Swynnerton] is represented are distinguished by a masculine largeness that is rarely to be noted in a woman’s work. She has almost a sculptor’s sense of mass and love of ample form, and she uses colour with a decorator’s idea of balance and distribution. At the same time she paints with feeling and with true poetry, so that everything she produces has an interest to the thinker as well as to the seeker for technical quality. She has sent here things done at various periods of her career, and the growth of her professional understanding can, therefore, be followed with some closeness. Between her rustic study, “Thro’ the Orchard,” and her finely conceived and painted “Panae” there is a marked difference, a change of view and style that argues a vast amount of concentration and devotion to the pursuit of a worthy ideal.”
At it’s first known exhibition, Melbourne, 1887, it is titled “Thro’ the Orchard” in the catalogue, so that is the title used here. Different sources have ‘Thro’ the Orchard,’ ‘Through the Orchard’ (including in letters between the Swynnertons and Hugh Lane regarding the painting) or ‘The Young Mother,’ the latter being the title used in the 1923 exhibition catalogue and currently by the Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin.
- Media: oil on canvas.
- Dimensions: 337 x 530 mm (1.8 m²).
- History: Signed and dated 1883; exhibited Manchester Academy of Fine Arts, 10 Feb 1885 (Manchester Evening News, 9 Feb 1995); exhibited Grosvenor Gallery Intercolonial Exhibition, Melbourne Public Library, 27 October 1887 (exhibition lasting approx. two months); exhibited Women’s Exhibition, Earl’s Court, London, 1900, sold to Hugh Lane, the delivery being discussed Nov 1907 and in his possession 1908; Lane Gift to Dublin City Gallery, 1912; exhibited Manchester Art Gallery, 1923, “The Young Mother … Painted at Clovelly”; exhibited Manchester Art Gallery, 23 Feb 2018 to 6 Jan 2019.
- Location: Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin.
ANNIE LOUISA SWYNNERTON (1844-1933) 
With regards to Through the Orchard, this work was most likely exhibited at the Grosvenor Galleries Intercolonial Exhibition in Melbourne in 1887. The Coutts Lindsays sent out a collection of works by Grosvenor Galleries artists and Annie Swynnerton was included with a work titled Thro’ the Orchard, cat. 107. Here is the link to the digitised catalogue – http://digital.slv.vic.gov.au/view/action/singleViewer.do?dvs=1591014644212~885&locale=en_US&metadata_object_ratio=10&show_metadata=true&VIEWER_URL=/view/action/singleViewer.do?&preferred_usage_type=VIEW_MAIN&DELIVERY_RULE_ID=10&frameId=1&usePid1=true&usePid2=true
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Thank you, Lara. From studying your information I see that the details are as follows:
The Grosvenor Gallery Intercolonial Exhibition, Public Library, Melbourne. 1887. Sir Coutts Lindsay, Bart., Proprietor and Director. Exhibition opened 27 October “for about two months.” 156 works, including George Watts (“The Brewers”, “Love and Life”, “Love and Death” and three portraits), Burne-Jones (“In the Depths of the Sea” and “An Unpainted Masterpiece”) and Evelyn de Morgan (“By the Waters of Babylon we Sat Down and Wept”). Annie’s address is given as 76 Fulham Road, London, S.W.
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Hi Jonathan,
That looks correct. I have emailed the Dublin City Art Gallery with the same information as I needed to speak with the curator about another painting by a different artist in their collection.
Warm wishes,
Lara
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