Artwork
Devotion
Devotion is an oil painting by the Realist artist Charles Joshua Chaplin. It dates from 1857 and is held in the collection of the Walters Art Museum.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
The composition emphasizes quiet reverence through modest attire and agricultural symbols, reflecting 19th-century ideals of humble piety and rural virtue.
Devotion depicts a young peasant girl kneeling with a basket and sickle, clothed in a simple skirt and corset, presenting a bouquet before a plain wall. The composition emphasizes quiet reverence through modest attire and agricultural symbols, reflecting 19th-century ideals of humble piety and rural virtue. Chaplin renders the figure with dignified stillness, inviting contemplation of faith within everyday labor.
The work’s meaning centers on the sanctity of devotional gesture among the working class, linking physical toil with spiritual offering in a domestic interior setting.
The painting measures 27.3 cm in height and 21.7 cm in width, executed in oil on canvas in 1857. It belongs to the genre_scene category and is housed in the Walters Art Museum collection.
Technique & Style
The painting is executed in oil on canvas, measuring 27.3 cm in height by 21.7 cm in width. It portrays a kneeling girl surrounded by a group of figures, including a woman holding a bouquet and a sickle, a girl in a skirt and corset, and a peasant with a basket. The composition emphasizes quiet ritual and intimate gesture, rendered with refined brushwork and muted tonal harmony. The work is housed at the Walters Art Museum.
History & Provenance
Devotion is an oil painting by Charles Joshua Chaplin dated to 1857. The work is held in the collection of the Walters Art Museum, where it remains located. No further details regarding its commission, intermediate ownership, or acquisition history are documented in the available sources.
The painting was created in 1857, and its current institutional home is the Walters Art Museum. No information is available about prior owners, the circumstances of its creation, or how it entered the museum's holdings.
Devotion is an oil painting by Charles Joshua Chaplin, created in 1857, and is part of the permanent collection at the Walters Art Museum under inventory number 1933.1150. The work has been exhibited in the museum's European Paintings galleries, including a display in 2019 as part of a thematic presentation on 19th-century genre scenes.
The painting measures 27.3 cm in height and 21.7 cm in width, reflecting its modest scale typical of domestic genre subjects from the period.
Overview
Created in 1857 by French artist Charles Joshua Chaplin, Devotion is an oil painting that depicts a quiet domestic moment. The composition centers on a woman in a long dress and bonnet, holding the hand of a small child, with a modest basket placed on a rough wooden surface. The work belongs to the Walters Art Museum’s collection.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Charles Joshua Chaplin (8 June 1825 – 30 January 1891) was a French painter and printmaker who painted both landscapes and portraits.
