Schoolgirls

London’s suburbs spread rapidly from 1850 on, with Londoners keen to escape the city for the pretense of something closer to nature. One such middle-class neighborhood was Haverstock Hill in South Hampstead, where the painter George Clausen rented a studio at a time when he was recording scenes of modern life in a manner inspired by the latest French painting. Here, a line of schoolgirls proceeds up the street, chaperoned by their schoolmistress. The apparent naturalness of the schoolgirls, and the unusual cropping of their figures, prompted a critic in the Times (London) to declare approvingly that "the whole composition seems so spontaneous and unforced." Yet Clausen subtly probes at Victorian proprieties. There is a hint of sexual frisson in the schoolgirls’ direct gazes, as well as lurking class conflict: the wealthy girls pointedly ignore the poor flower seller, while the aging milkmaid stares at them from the road with a look of undisguised contempt.

Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2020

Credit Line: Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection