An Idyll

The artist has reinterpreted the old idyllic and rather remote image of pastoral or arcadian love as a passionate, sexual embrace. The man clasps the girl to him, grasping her long hair; the girl yields and her dress, disturbingly modern by contrast with the man’s animal skin, comes loose; her portrait-like face looks out at us in coy ecstasy. No wonder this was the favourite picture of D H Lawrence, the great chronicler and advocate of unreasoning passion in human relationships. He copied it three times, once for his fiancée Louie Burrows, and it is discussed at length - and largely from a female point of view - in his novel 'The White Peacock'.