The Favourite Shepherd

Thomas Uwins's The Favourite Shepherd, painted in 1837, depicts an Italian genre subject of the type that made Uwins popular with British collectors. Having spent seven years in Italy (1824-1831), Uwins developed a specialty in scenes of southern Italian rural life — peasants, festivals, and pastoral subjects bathed in warm Mediterranean light. He was elected Royal Academician in 1838, the year after painting this work.

Uwins's oil-on-canvas technique employs warm, golden tonality and soft modeling characteristic of his Italian subjects. The pastoral scene is rendered with attention to costume detail and natural gesture, creating an idealized but convincing image of Mediterranean rural life.