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Ruth

Printmaker: Stocks, Lumb, RA · 1812-1892 Publisher: Royal Association for the Promotion of the Fine Arts in Scotland · 1849-1891 Primary artist: Lauder, Robert Scott, RSA · 1803-1869

“As regarded the engravings, the plate of Ruth, executed with so much ability for the subscribers last year, had for some time been in circulation, and had given universal satisfaction. For the subscribers for the year 1845-46, Mr Stocks will have completed an engraving of The Ten Virgins after Mr James Eckford Lauder, by the month of October; and immediately thereafter electrotype plates will be produced, and the printing carried on with every despatch, that it was anticipated that the impression would be ready for delivery early in the year- reference to the engraving or engravings for 1846-47+, as well as to the practicality of obtaining a series of etched outlines, it was proposed that those matters should be left for the consideration of the new committee.”
Edinburgh Evening Post and Scottish Standard - Wednesday 08 July 1846 (reporting on the 12th Annual General Meeting of RAPFAS on Saturday 04 July 1846)

Lauder's original painting was exhibited at the RSA Annual Exhibition in 1843 (cat.48) where it carried an earlier reference, viz Book of Ruth Chapter 2, verses 5-7; "Then said Boaz unto his Servant that was set over the reapers, "Whose damsel is this?" And the Servant that was set over the reapers answered and said, "It is the
Moabitish damsel that came back with Naomi, out of the country of Moab ; and she
said, 'I pray you let me glean and gather after the reapers among the shearers' : so she
came, and hath continued even from the morning until now,”

The work was purchased by RAPFAS from the 1843 RSA AX for £100, and was selected by the RAPFAS Committee of Management as its subscribers' premium plate for 1845, vide Report by the Committee of Management of the Royal Association for the Promotion of the Fine Arts in Scotland for 1842-43, p.10; "In continuation of the plan which has been so successfully adopted to ensure the delivery of the pictures to the Members within the annual period of their subscriptions, the Committee begs to recommend, that the painting of 'Ruth' by R S Lauder be selected as a fit subject for engraving for the year 1844-45. The Committee makes this recommendation after a anxious consideration of the respective charms of various pictures. The character of Ruth is of an exceedingly endearing kind, and it appeared to them that the artist had succeeded in portraying her noble and self-sacrificing nature, in a manner congenial to the high tone of feeling of the Scottish people. They also considered that the painting was well calculated to produce a bold and effective engraving, of somewhat different character from any hitherto issued amongst the subscribers, and capable of being executed without a very large expenditure."

the work was engraved exclusively for the subscriber members of RAPFAS for the year 1845

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