Wilbur Winfield Woodward, Girl Picking Fleas From A Dog (1879)

WILBUR WOODWARD (1851 St. Omer, Decatur County, Indiana - 1882 Lawrenceburg Indiana)
Girl picking fleas from a dog
1879
Oil on panel
24 x 19 cm
Signed, located, and dated: WOODWARD / Paris / 1879
Label printed on the back: BRUYAS Rue de Seine 31 with the number 85 filled in by hand

Born in rural Indiana, Wilbur Woodward studied at the McMicken School of Design in Cincinnati before leaving for Europe where he followed courses at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, and afterwards at the Académie Julien in Paris. Returning to Cincinnati for a year, from the mid-seventies he settled permanently in Paris. Wilbur Woodward had his studio at 22 rue Monsieur-le-Prince near the Odéon. We know of only two paintings by Woodward, Springtime, a gift by the artist's parents to the Indianapolis Museum of Art, and the charming Girl picking fleas from a dog.