A Cabbage Garden

In 1878, Melville he made his debut at the Royal Academy in London with A Cabbage Garden. This pioneering composition is believed to have inspired Guthrie’s A Hind’s Daughter of 1883. Melville’s painting also illustrates his awareness of other artistic groups in Europe such as the Barbizon and Hague school artists. The sale of Melville’s picture to the Lasswade paper manufacturer James Hunter Annandale partially financed the artist’s studies in Paris from 1878 to 1880.