A French Romantic painter, Camille Roqueplan did mostly landscapes and outdoor scenes. This first painting fits in the same tradition of lost virginity as Jean Baptiste Greuze’s The Broken Pitcher and was clearly an influence on Greuze’s piece (it dates from six years earlier), even if the symbolism isn’t quite as overt as Greuze’s was. Note again the flowers in her dress, a direct reference to Robert Herrick’s poem To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time, a plea for young girls to put themselves on the market, so to speak, while they’re still young because youth and beauty are fleeting. Hard to believe that poem was written in the 1600s.
Camille Roqueplan – Girl with Flowers (1843) (1)
Camille Roqueplan – Girl with Flowers (1843) (2)
There is a little girl in this work, though you must look closely to see her.
Camille Roqueplan – Les lavandières (The Laundresses)