John F. Kavanagh (1853 - 1898) Woman on a River Bank Oil on canvas, 47 x 60cm (18½ x 23½) Signed and inscribed 'Paris 1888' Kavanagh depicts a woman standing upon a riverbank or beside a lake. She is viewed from the side, hand on hip, standing in statuesque pose, seeming to look into the distance. The woman pauses from her work washing clothes, for items of washing rest upon a stool upon the ground. She wears a white scarf, violet blouse and long blue dress. She is viewed partially in shadow, but sunlight falls upon the rear of her scarf and back, and there is a warm, reflected, rosy light on her face and fingers. Behind her is the figure of a small elderly woman, also in shadow, perhaps carrying a load of wood upon her back. She stands upon a sunny, grassy bank, and there is a rowing boat moored nearby. Kavanagh’s use of granular pigment in the foreground gives texture to the picture, while, in contrast to the careful delineation of the human figures the vibrant, singing green of the riverbank and the hazy background, pleasingly evoke a hot, summer’s day at evening. Dr. Julian Campbell