Sir William Russell Flint, R.A., P.R.W.S.

Sir Alec Black;
Private collection

London, The Fine Art Society, Exhibition of Recent Paintings and Watercolours by W. Russell Flint, 1923, no.9;
Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery, 55th Autumn Exhibition, of Works by W. Russell Flint, 1927, no.126

Structure: This picture has been relined and is in very good condition with strong, clear colouring throughout. There are no visible signs of craquelure and the paint surface appears to be stable. Under ultraviolet light: There are a few minor areas of flecked retouching, in the bootom left corner, mainly to the back of the standing girl's head, to the extended arm and hand of the uppermost girl and to the standing girl's drapes. However these reouchings are very minor and have been extremely sensitively executed. Frame: Contained in a painted frame which appears to be later. This picture comes very highly recommended as a fine example in oils by the artist.
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'...he is often more interesting when stretching himself in classical subjects in oils.' (John Christian (ed.), The Last Romantics, exhibition catalogue for the Barbican Art Gallery, 1989, p. 137)

William Russell Flint's long-legged and nubile young ladies have become the epitome of sensual glamour from the first few decades of the twentieth century. Like Hollywood screen-goddesses or fashion models, they strut, pose and recline in various attitudes of sensual abandon. In The Painted Bridge we find a trio of such maidens, disported around an ornamental footbridge in some idyllic water-garden. Stripped to the waist for swimming and basking in the summer sunlight, they are exposed to the viewer like the marble goddesses of the Ancients and are set apart from the modern world. Unlike other pictures by Flint in which he consciously included items of modern dress such as a bathing hat or pair of silk slippers, these girls are simply draped in diaphanous robes, of flower-tinted hues, suggestive of the classical age. Their hair styles are also less specific to a particular age than other girls painted by Flint. They appear to be daughters of a timeless age of beauty and in comparison to the drawings and watercolours made by Flint, these women are monumental in their fleshy allure.

Like John William Godward, who Flint had spent time with in Rome in 1912, Flint was preoccupied with the varying beauties of women. The ouevre of both artists was dominated by images of beautiful models in idyllic settings and The Painted Bridge bears comparison with the best of Godward’s work in which sultry maidens are reposed in a pseudo-classical world. 

It is useful to compare a similarly composed group of delectable women in Leighton’s The Garden of the Hesperides (Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight) with The Painted Bridge. Here too are three sensual women, gathered around a tree and beside water – both symbolic of fertility. Unlike Leighton’s painting, Flint’s image is light and refracted, the paint flecked upon the bodies of the girls and the flowing water. Although the subjects are alike and the poses of the figures similarly classical, the way in which the artists painted was very different. The younger Flint, was attempting to distance himself from the dark tones of Victorian art and the invisible brushwork of the previous generation. His painting revels in the extravagance of visible brushstrokes and bright colouring. However, by choosing to paint an image which is based upon a classical composition and redolent of earlier academic art, it seems that Flint was trying to show that he could paint a subject that Leighton would have chosen, but in a style that was more in keeping with the fashion of the 1920s. In 1923 when he most likely painted The Painted Bridge, Flint was working hard to impress the council of the Royal Academy and its President Frank Dicksee (who had lived in Flint’s studio before him), who was famous for his adherence to traditional principles in art. Flint was seeking approval from the Academy and by painting large and impressive oils like The Painted Bridge, he gained himself the recognition he desired. In 1924 he was made an Associate of the Royal Academy.

In the early 1920s Flint was in a period of financial success when his average income was over four-thousand pounds. However, he was attempting to stretch himself to further accolade and success by painting in oils on a large scale. This was a divergence for an artist who was largely known for his small scale watercolours and it is remarkable that he proved to be so adept with the medium of oil paint. His use of vibrant colour and of light in The Painted Bridge created an image of shimmering sunlight and glittering water torrents. 

The choice of three models for The Painted Bridge is interesting as Flint had often chosen to depict three figures in his larger paintings. The classical themes of the Three Graces or of the 'Judgement of Paris' are brought to mind. The latter subject which tells of the beauty contest in which the young shepherd of Mount Ida is given the difficult task of choosing a winner between Aphrodite the Goddess of Carnal Love, Pallas Athena the Goddess of War and Wisdom and Diana the virginal Goddess of the Hunt. When Aphrodite disrobes to show the full impact of her beauty, Paris is so captivated by the sight of her naked body that he awards her the prize of a golden apple. The story has been regarded through the centuries as an allegory of the power of profane love above all other qualities. The naked central figure in Flint's painting can be regarded as a type of Aphrodite or Venus, rather like the Goddesses who roll in on the tide in countless continental Salon paintings by the likes of Bouguereau, Cabanel and Baudry. There was also a well-established tradition in Britain of female nudes representing a classical sylvan fertility in paintings like Leighton's The Garden of the Hesperides or Watts' cycle of paintings depicting Eve. 

The sophisticated elegance of The Painted Bridge is also reminiscent of the work of Sargent and of Boldini. Although Flint is not known to have been associated personally with Sargent or Boldini, he would have known their paintings from the Royal Academy exhibitions. Perhaps the closest parallel can be drawn between The Painted Bridge and the work of the most suave painter of his generation, John Singer Sargent. From the early 1880s when Sargent settled in Britain, he was regarded as the foremost portrait painter and his elegant likenesses of the rich and famous were to be a great influence upon many of those who can into contact with them. Although Sargent was not known for his paintings of nudes, by comparing a work such as the Portrait of the Acheson Sisters (His Grace the Duke of Devonshire and the Trustees of the Chatsworth Settlement) with The Painted Bridge, it is clear that the two artists work was based on fundamentally the same ideals. Sargent’s trio of young ladies is also arranged around a tree, which both  anchors them into an earthly paradise and also suggests natural fertility and the fruitfulness of youth. Their expressions are also similarly individual and inviting, reflecting from one another and directing the eye of the spectator towards all parts of the picture. The three artists, Boldini, Sargent and Flint showed a mutual interest in capturing the fleeting effects of light, the varied aspects of feminine beauty and the glamorous flashes of an imagined world of carefree pleasure.  

The Painted Bridge was owned by the Justice of the Peace and 1st Baronet Sir Alec Black (1872-1942), who made his fortune buying and building trawlers and steam-ships which he placed at the disposal of the government at the outbreak of war in 1914.