Study for 'Startled', ca. 1892

Sir Frank Dicksee PRA (1853 - 1928)

RA Collection: Art

A preparatory study in pencil and chalk showing the younger girl in Frank Dicksee's Diploma work, Startled (03/1039). The painting depicts a young woman and a girl who have been surprised while bathing by what appears to be a Viking long-ship. When the painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy, the critic for the journal The Academy found the subject confusing, saying: 'it does not appertain exactly to idealistic or realistic art, and halts, indeed, somewhat unsatisfactorily between the two' (7 May 1892, p. 450). Unlike most of Dicksee's previous works, there is no quotation appended to the title, suggesting that the subject is imaginary rather than based on a literary source.

Composing his pictures carefully, Dicksee made many preliminary studies. This detailed study is drawn in pencil outline with strong highlights in white chalk illuminating one side of the body. The artist used this drawing to explore the effect of light falling on the figure from behind. The white highlights in this study were translated into a golden glow from the setting sun behind the figures in the finished painting.

See record 03/1039 for further discussion of the finished painting.