Gossip, John William Waterhouse; oil on canvas, roughly 28 x 36 inches (72 x 93 cm). Link is to image page on Wikipedia; image is via a previous Christie’s auction; the painting is now in a private collection.

English post-Pre-Raphaelite (if that makes any sense) John William Waterhouse — whose usual metier was dramatic mythological and literary subjects — here gives us an unusually prosaic domestic scene.

Three women, engaged in doing laundry or taking care of a child, discuss events over the garden wall.

To me, the calm undramatic nature of the scene highlights its simple beauty. I love the tone and texture Waterhouse has created for the bricks, pots and stone pathway. The muted colors indicate an overcast day, and the colors take on a subtle strength as a result.

When you get up close, you see that Waterhouse was much more painterly than the Pre-Raphaelite painters he admired.

Blue and White, Louise Jopling, oil on canvas, roughly 49 x 34 inches (123 x 86 cm). Link is to Wikimedia Commons; the page indicates the original is in the Liverpool Museums, but I can’t find mention of it on their site.

Louise Jopling was a Victorian era painter and apparently well known, though I haven’t found many images of her work on the web.

Here she gives us a quiet domestic scene. Two women are apparently washing dishes — though they’re hardly dressed for the chore. Perhaps they’ve stopped in the middle of a dinner party to ready up some additional dishes for another course?

Note the attention paid to the blue and white Dellftware and other dishes and pottery, hence the painting’s name.

I like the way Jopling has indicated the textures of the womens’ hair and the material of their gowns.