Figure 1.--Briton Rivière painted this genre work in 1877--'Sympathy'. Like many of his paintings, an animal is featured, in this case the little girl's dog. It would have appealed to the sentimentality of the Victorian Era and Briton added a touch of his trade-mark humor. His dayghter Milicant modeled for the painting and we think the family dog did likewise.

'Sympathy' was another of Briton Rivière's sentimental painting depicting children and animals. Rivière painted it in 1877. In this case he depicted a girl in a blue dress which her white dog is comforting. He did not often do children, but animals are almost always opresent in his works. It is a charming image and fully in keeping with the Victorian love for sentimental depictions, especially of children. This is a good example of his story telling and sometimes humor he used in his animal depictions. The story here is that the little girl has been naughty and has been sent in disgrace to ponder her misdeeds on a landing in the stairs--rather than a corner which could have not been depicted in the same way. Here she is conforted by her little dog, Rivière was very popular with the Victorian public and this was among his most popular works. The girl was his daughter Millicent. The original is in the Tate Gallery.

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Created: 4:04 PM 8/17/2011
Last updated: 4:04 PM 8/17/2011