Shepherd Boy Playing a Flute
John Linnell
1831
This is a small replica of the painting The Farmer’s Boy, which John Linnell exhibited in London in 1830. He began making studies for the painting in 1828 when visiting Samuel Palmer in Shoreham, Kent. Linnell’s young shepherd reflects the painter’s belief in the inherent nobility and virtue of ordinary rural laborers, particularly shepherds, given that Christ identified himself as the Good Shepherd.
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven · Image: Yale Center for British Art, Public domain · Text: Yale Center for British Art, CC0