Oil painting entitled 'John Gilpin' by Thomas Stothard. Great Britain, ca. late 18th century, early 19th century.

Oil on canvas illustrating a scene from William Cowper's comic ballad of 1782, 'The Diverting History of John Gilpin'.

Given by John Sheepshanks, 1857

Given by John Sheepshanks, 1857
Extract from Parkinson, Ronald, Catalogue of British Oil Paintings 1820-1860. Victoria & Albert Museum, HMSO, London, 1990. p.xviii.

John Sheepshanks (1784-1863) was the son of a wealthy cloth manufacturer. He entered the family business, but his early enthusiasms were for gardening and the collecting of Dutch and Flemish prints. He retired from business at the age of 40, by which time he had begun collecting predominantly in the field of modern British art. He told Richard Redgrave RA, then a curator in the South Kensington Museum (later the V&A) of his intention to give his collection to the nation. The gallery built to house the collection was the first permanent structure on the V&A site, and all concerned saw the Sheepshanks Gift as forming the nucleus of a National Gallery of British Art. Sheepshanks commissioned works from contemporary artists, bought from the annual RA summer exhibitions, but also bought paintings by artists working before Queen Victoria ascended the throne in 1837. The Sheepshanks Gift is the bedrock of the V&A's collection of British oil paintings, and served to encourage many other collectors to make donations and bequests.

Historical significance: Thomas Stothard (1755-1834) was a highly prolific painter, book illustrator and designer. After his father's death in 1770 he began his working life apprenticed to a Huguenot silk weaver. At the completion of his apprenticeship in 1777 he entered the Royal Academy Schools, and there struck up life-long friendships with the sculptor John Flaxman and with William Blake. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1778 until his death in 1834, and from 1778 also began to produce illustrations for various publishers and magazines such as the Ladies' Magazine. He sometimes exhibited the original designs for such illustrations at the Royal Academy exhibitions. In his day he was highly respected as a history painter in oil, but the V&A collections of drawings and watercolours reflect his reputation during the 19th century predominantly as an illustrator, as well as a designer of a multitude of objects such as silver salvers to funerary monuments. As the Dictionary of National Biography notes, Stothard took 'advantage of the opportunities afforded by publishing and the industrial arts, while maintaining a reputation in the more respectable reaches of high art'. For example Stothard exhibited works on a grander scale than was his norm for Bowyer's 'Historic Gallery' (1790-1806). But many of the oils now in the V&A are on a modest scale and are perhaps designs for printed illustrations, rather than 'finished' history paintings. Stothard played a respected part in the art world of his day, and from 1812 until his death at the age of seventy-nine he held the post of librarian of the Royal Academy.

This painting illustrates a scene from William Cowper's comic ballad of 1782, The Diverting History of John Gilpin. The poem relates the tale of a linen draper named John Gilpin and his anniversary holiday, during which Gilpin and his wife and children become separated on the way to the Bell Inn, Edmonton, after Gilpin loses control of his horse, and is carried on ten miles to the town of Ware. The scene depicted by Stothard is from stanzas 36 and 37;

At Edmonton his loving wife
From the balcony spied
Her tender husband, wondering much
To see how he did ride.

"Stop, stop, John Gilpin! Here's the house" -
They all at once did cry;
'The dinner waits, and we are tir'd";
Said Gilpin - "So am I!"

William Cowper (1731-1800) was articled as a solicitor and was called to the bar at the age of 23. Due to severe depression, he had to give up his career, but was able to work on various notable literary projects as a poet, hymn-writer, and translator. He lived for much of his life in Olney, Buckinghamshire, where there is now a museum, The Cowper and Newton Museum devoted to his life and that of his collaborator on the Olney Hymns, John Newton.

The story of John Gilpin was first recounted to Cowper by Lady Austin (or Austen) to divert him from his melancholy. John Gilpin was probably based on a Mr Beyer, an eminent linen draper from London, living on the Cheapside corner of Paternoster Row. Cowper adapted the story to be sung to the tune of Chevy Chase. At first it was published anonymously in the Public Advertiser, but thanks to public readings by an actor, John Henderson, the poem became hugely popular, and once Cowper admitted he was the author, he became a household name.

The story was published many times, and illustrated by many well-known illustrators. As with many of Stothard's small oil paintings, it is unclear whether this is a sketch for a printed illustration or is a finished oil intended primarily for display and sale. On the one hand the image has so far not been matched to a finished print or illustration, and modesty of scale and even a somewhat sketchy nature seems to be no indication of function - large scale oils were rare in Stothard's oeuvre. On the other, Stothard was so prolific as an illustrator and designer that it may yet prove to be a design for an illustration.

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