Physical description
Oil on canvas. The children here are playing while their mother and grandmother are out of the house; the two children in the centre are pounding bread in a mortar and pestle to make tablets, but the child on the right has taken the game a step further by climbing on a chair to open the medicine cupboard, and is pouring a measure of perhaps poisonous liquid into a glass to administer to the 'patient'. Fortunately, the adults are seen returning through the door, otherwise the patient might become a fatality, an outcome suggested in the right corner of the picture by the doll which has fallen out of her carriage. There is a mirror on the wall which reflects the view to the outside world through the left-hand window.
Place of Origin
Great Britain, UK (Painted)
Date
1863 (Painted)
Artist/maker
Hardy, Frederick Daniel, born 1826 - died 1911 (Painter)
Materials and Techniques
oil on canvas
Marks and inscriptions
'F D Hardy/1863'
Dimensions
Height: 44.7 cm estimate, Width: 61 cm estimate, Height: 75.5 cm frame, Width: 91.5 cm frame
Object history note
Bequeathed by Joshua Dixon, 1886.
Hardy's long and successful career was principally devoted to painting happily nostalgic episodes in childhood, most often of a domestic and humorous nature. As with so many scenes of everyday life, this work is intended to be 'read' like a written narrative. The children here are playing while their mother and grandmother are out of the house; the two children in the centre are pounding bread in a mortar and pestle to make tablets, but the child on the right has taken the game a step further by climbing on a chair to open the medicine cupboard, and is pouring a measure of perhaps poisonous liquid into a glass to administer to the 'patient'. Fortunately, the adults are seen returning through the door, otherwise the patient might become a fatality, an outcome suggested in the right corner of the picture by the doll which has fallen out of her carriage. Hardy also uses a device much enjoyed by painters and their audience in the middle years of the nineteenth century - the mirror on the wall which reflects the view to the outside world through the left-hand window.
Descriptive line
'Children Playing at Doctors' by Frederick Daniel Hardy, oil on canvas, Britain, signed and dated 1863.
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
O'Mahony, C., Brunel and the Art of Invention . Bristol: Samsom & Company Ltd., 2006. 64 p. : col. ill. ISBN 1904537502
Exhibition catalogue.
Parkinson, R., Victoria and Albert Museum, Catalogue of British Oil Paintings 1820-1860, London: HMSO, 1990, pp. 118-19
The following is the full text of the entry:
"HARDY, Frederick Daniel (1826-1911)
Born 13 February 1826 (not 1827, as in DNB) at Windsor, where his father was a musician in the Private Band of the Royal Household. Attended the Academy of Music in Hanover Square from about 1843 to 1846, when he studied painting with his elder brother George (1822-1909). In 1854 settled in Cranbrook, Kent, with Thomas Webster (to whom he was related) and others; they came to be known as the Cranbrook Colony, specialising in rural genre painting. Exhibited 93 works at the RA between 1851 and 1898, and five at the BI 1851-56, all scenes of cottage life, sometimes humorous. His pictures of children engaged in adult pursuits were especially popular. Died Cranbrook 1 April 1911.
LIT: Art Journal 1875, pp73-6; A Greg The Cranbrook Colony exhibition catalogue Wolverhampton Art Gallery 1977
Children Playing at Doctors
1035-1886 Negs GK3333, 8834
Canvas, 44.7 x 61 cm (17 5/8 x 24 ins)
Signed and dated 'F D Hardy/1863' on toy cart br
Dixon Bequest 1886
Presumably the painting exhibited at the RA in 1863 with the title 'The Doctor', although there are at least two other versions (see Versions: below). It was admired by the Art Journal critic:
But of all the pictures given up to child's play, and they are legion, a little work called 'The Doctor' ... is certainly one of the best ... The execution is sufficiently minute to give reality to the circumstantial narrative, without falling into excess of elaboration. The quiet humour and quaint character which reign throughout, so closely akin to Wilkie and Webster, and allied indeed to the wit and mirth which flow freely in our native literature, should not be passed without notice.
EXH: RA 1863 (358); The Cranbrook Colony Wolverhampton Art Gallery 1977
LIT: Art Journal1863, pl12
Versions: 1 Christie's (L F Loyd Collection) 31 January 1913 (117, panel, 54.6 x 74.9 cm (21½ x 29½ ins), as exhibited at RA 1863 and signed and dated 1863), bought A M Singer 80 guineas; sold by Lady Singer, date unknown; with a dealer in Torquay c1960; private collection, Devon, 1961
2 (Probably identical with the above) Sotheby's Belgravia 24 October 1978 (22, panel, 55.9 x 76.2 cm (22 x 30 ins), as exhibited at RA 1863, signed and dated 1863 on toy cart), sold £22,000. The only difference in detail from the V&A painting is that the two pictures on either side of the mirror hang from cords
3 Private collection, Edinburgh, 1975"
Exhibition History
Brunel and the Art of Invention (Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery 15/04/2006-18/06/2006)
Materials
Oil paint; Canvas
Techniques
Oil painting
Subjects depicted
Furniture; Children; Clothing; Interiors; Mirror; Toys; Childhood; Paintings
Categories
Children & Childhood; Paintings; Dolls & Toys
Collection code
PDP
