Description
This wonderful copy of one of Reynolds’ most famous pictures captures perfectly the innocent charm of a young girl. The Strawberry Girl was one of the most admired eighteenth-century subject pictures. Small copies such as this example would have been produced by artists in schools such as the Royal Academy.
Strawberry girls were a common sight in eighteenth-century London, as girls from poor families attempted to make money selling the fruit on street corners and ‘Strawberry Gardens’. Reynolds painted the subject on several occasions and exhibited the picture at the Royal Academy in 1773. He considered the painting to be, according to his pupil James Northcote, not only “one of his best works”, but one of only half a dozen really original works that any artist could paint during their entire career.
