Provenance:
Kenneth A. Lohf, New York
Gifted to Paul Palmer, partner of the above, 2002
Thence by descent to the present owner

Lot note:
The present work is likely a study for a larger watercolor by the artist, The Bread Watchers, 1866, now in the collection of Manchester Gallery, United Kingdom. According to Ernestine Mills in The Life and Letters of Frederic Shields, studies for the final work, including the present watercolor, had been made more than a year before. On one occasion, the artist worked for three days on a snow-covered field in Porlock with his model and other young boys and girls. These children were paid a pittance to frighten away birds with wooden rattles in order to protect the newly sown corn (London, 1912, p. 109).