Octavius Oakley RWS A Gypsy Girl in a Red Cloak

An original mid-19th-century watercolour painting, Octavius Oakley RWS, A Gypsy Girl in a Red Cloak.

An arresting, large portrait rendered with beautiful sensitivity by Octavius Oakley RWS (1800–1867). Approximately 2.5 x 2 foot (framed size).

Oakley is known for his 'gypsy' subjects, which he exhibited at the Royal Watercolour Society; so much so, that he became known as 'Gypsy Oakley'.

This is a remarkably beautiful portrait, painted with realism and simplicity, without the 'exotic' accouterments sometimes used to denote 'gypsy' in the 19th-century. The red clock and partially visible tent indicate the subject, but the portrait has an affecting universality to it.

Gypsy subjects did nevertheless hold a fascination for the Victorian public, during an era of Empire, when there was immense curiosity for exploration, particularly an exploration of newly 'discovered' cultures at once exotic and subversive to traditional English identity.

In the 18th century, Thomas Gainsborough was the first British artist to portray gypsies, and did much to elevate the subject as legitimate and worthy of depiction in oil. His painting 'The Gypsies', c.1758, was his first to be published commercially as a print, bringing the subject to the British public on a wider scale.

By the mid-19th century, gypsies could be described as something of an obsession within Victorian culture, featuring widely in literature, both fiction and non-fiction. The best-selling traveller-writer George Borrow (1803–1881) in particular developed a close affinity with the Romani people of Europe, and his work The Romany Rye (1857) – ‘The Gypsy Gentleman’ told of his first-hand encounters with gypsy culture.

Presented in a handsome 19th-century gilt wood and gesso frame.

Image size: 44.5 x 30.5cm. Frame size: 76 x 61cm.