The Little Milkwoman

The Little Milkwoman belongs to de Loutherbourg's pastoral and rustic genre subjects — figures from working rural or semi-rural life painted for an English clientele with strong appetite for idealized country subjects in the tradition of Gainsborough's fancy pictures. De Loutherbourg had absorbed French genre painting in Paris before his English career, and these lighter pastoral works complement his more dramatic Sublime landscapes by demonstrating his range. The milkmaid was a stock figure of English pastoral — a symbol of wholesome rural virtue — that appeared in literature and visual art throughout the eighteenth century.

Soft morning light falls on the milkmaid figure in a rural setting, with the warmth appropriate to the pastoral genre rather than dramatic chiaroscuro. Colours are fresh and clear — greens, creams, warm flesh tones — handled with a lighter touch than his battle or shipwreck works.