Yale Center for British Art

Creator:
John Linnell, 1792–1882, British
Title:
Shepherd Boy Playing a Flute
Date:
1831
Materials & Techniques:
Oil on panel
Dimensions:
9 × 6 1/2 inches (22.9 × 16.5 cm)
Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:
Signed and dated, lower left: "[J l...ell] [date illegible ??]
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1981.25.420
Classification:
Paintings
Collection:
Paintings and Sculpture
Subject Terms:
animals | dog (animal) | sheep | genre subject | country | costume | hat | fipple flute | recorder | instrument | pastoral | boy | shepherd | music | staff (staff weapon component) | trees
Currently On View:
Not on view
Exhibition History:
Out to Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2022-03-11 - 2022-03-28)

An American's Passion for British Art - Paul Mellon's Legacy (Yale Center for British Art, 2007-04-18 - 2007-07-29)

An American's Passion for British Art - Paul Mellon's Legacy (Royal Academy of Arts, 2007-10-20 - 2008-01-27)

John Linnell Centenary Exhibition (The Fitzwilliam Museum, 1982-10-05 - 1982-12-01)

John Linnell Centenary Exhibition (Yale Center for British Art, 1983-01-15 - 1983-03-01)
Publications:
John Baskett, Paul Mellon's Legacy: a Passion for British Art: Masterpieces from the Yale Center for British Art, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2007, p. 291, no. 105, pl. 105, N5220 M552 P38 2007 OVERSIZE (YCBA)

Malcolm Cormack, Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1985, pp. 148-149, N590.2 .A83 (YCBA)

Katharine Crouan, John Linnell, a centennial exhibition, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [Cambridgeshire] New York, 1982, p. 25, no. 68, Pl. 68, NJ18 L658 C75 (YCBA)

Raymond Lister, British romantic painting, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge New York, 1989, no. 47, ND467 L53 1989 (YCBA)

Painting in England 1700-1850 : collection of Mr. & Mrs. Paul Mellon : Exhibition at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, , , Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA, 1963, p. 154 (v.1), no. 294, ND466 V57 v.1-2 (YCBA)

Christiana Payne, Toil and plenty : images of the agricultural landscape in England, 1780-1890, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1993, p. 101, no. 19, pl. 12, ND1354.4 P39 1993 (YCBA)
Gallery Label:
This is a small replica of the painting The Farmer’s Boy, which John Linnell exhibited in London in 1830. He began making studies for the painting in 1828 when visiting Samuel Palmer in Shoreham, Kent. Linnell’s young shepherd reflects the painter’s belief in the inherent nobility and virtue of ordinary rural laborers, particularly shepherds, given that Christ identified himself as the Good Shepherd. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:904