Oil paint on canvas on board
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/charles-shannon-1931" aria-label="More by Charles Shannon" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Charles Shannon</a>
Les Marmitons
Purchased 1942
adults
domestic
dress: fantasy/fancy
fancy dress / role play
furnishings
Hargood, Kate
individuals: female
interior - non-specific
interiors
mirror
named individuals
objects
people
portraits
society
woman
<p>These two young girls, dressed up as male kitchen servants or ‘marmitons’, are caught unawares. They appear self conscious in their new guise, as if their childhood game has been interrupted by an uninvited onlooker.</p><p>Children’s love of dressing up and pretending to be someone else can appear to confirm that certain behaviour is a ‘natural’ part of childhood, as if children were the same at all times and in all cultures. The fact that the two girls are wearing seventeenth-century costume seems to reflect this idea.</p><p><em>Gallery label, July 2004</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas board
19 April 2004 – 11 June 2006
2006-06-11
19 April 2004 – 11 June 2006
2006-06-11
2004-04-19
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2004-04-19
Cult of Youth
Collection based display
2 October 2017 – 2 April 2018
2018-04-02
2 October 2017 – 2 April 2018
2018-04-02
2017-10-02
National Gallery (London, UK)
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk
2017-10-02
Jan van Eyck and the Pre-Raphaelites
Loan-out
Les Marmitons
support: 390 × 366 mm
frame: 490 × 468 × 55 mm
Purchased 1942
<div class="pbodytext">
<span class="text0">These two young girls, dressed up as male kitchen      servants or ‘marmitons’,  are caught unawares. They appear self      conscious in their new guise, as if their childhood game has been      interrupted by an uninvited onlooker. </span>
</div>
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<span class="text0">
<br/> </span>
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<div class="pbodytext">
<span class="text0">Children’s love of dressing up and </span><span class="text14">pretending to be someone else can appear</span><span class="text0"> to confirm that certain behaviour is a ‘natural’      part of childhood, as if children were the same at all times and in all      cultures. The fact that the two girls are wearing seventeenth-century      costume seems to reflect this idea. </span>
</div>

Display caption
2004-07-16T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>N05363</b> LES MARMITONS (THE SCULLIONS) 1897</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Inscr. ‘C H S 97’ b.l.
<br/>Canvas, 15×14 1/4 (38×36).
<br/>Purchased from Christie, Manson &amp; Woods (Knapping Fund) 1942.
<br/><i>Coll:</i> Sir Edmund Davis by 1915, sold Christie's, 15 May 1942 (153), as ‘A Sketch for “Marmitons”’.
<br/><i>Lit:</i> T. Martin Wood, ‘The Edmund Davis Collection II’ in <i>Studio</i>, LXIV, 1915, p.232.</p>
<p>Although described as a study for ‘Les Marmitons’, a picture which was also formerly in the collection of Sir Edmund Davis (repr. <i>Studio</i>, LXIV, 1915, p.236), the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a> of <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/shannon-les-marmitons-n05363" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05363</span></a> differs considerably from the final work. The two female figures in seventeenth-century fancy dress are common to both, but are grouped more closely in half-seated poses in the Tate sketch. The finished <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> was exhibited at the International Society's third exhibition in 1901 (88) as ‘Rose and Blanche’ and was included in the Davis Sale, 15 May 1942 (147), as ‘Les Marmitons’, 41×37 in. The girl on the left is probably Miss Kate Hargood, who is identified by George as the sitter for ‘A Souvenir of Van Dyck’, also of 1897 (repr. E. B. G[eorge], <i>Charles Shannon</i>, 1924, pl.I), where she appears in almost the same pose.</p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, <i>The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture</i>, London 1964, II
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-07T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
adults domestic dress: fantasy/fancy fancy dress / role play furnishings Hargood, Kate individuals: female interior - non-specific interiors mirror named individuals objects people portraits society woman