The Fight Interrupted
Oil Painting
1816 (painted), 1816 (exhibited)
1816 (painted), 1816 (exhibited)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Painting, oil on panel, depicting the playground of a school; the schoolmaster has interrupted a fight, and seized the wrong culprit. Signed by the artist.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | The Fight Interrupted (assigned by artist) |
| Materials and techniques | Oil on a gesso ground on panel |
| Brief description | Oil on panel entitled 'The Fight Interrupted', by William Mulready. Great Britain, exhibited at the Royal Academy 1816. |
| Physical description | Painting, oil on panel, depicting the playground of a school; the schoolmaster has interrupted a fight, and seized the wrong culprit. Signed by the artist. |
| Dimensions |
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| Style | |
| Marks and inscriptions | 'W Mulrea' (Signed by the artist lower right; signature cut off) |
| Credit line | Given by John Sheepshanks, 1857 |
| Object history | Given by John Sheepshanks, 1857. Historical significance: This painting was considered by at least one critic the principal attraction in the Great Room of the 1816 Royal Academy exhibition, and probably ensured Mulready's election as a full Royal Academician in the same year. When Mulready was a teenager, in the years around 1800, boxing was one of the most popular sports in England, and he was encouraged by his father to take lessons from the celebrated pugilist Mendoza. The artist is supposed to have been devoted to watching street fights, and it is interesting that the drawing from the living model that he submitted to the RA Schools in 1800 depicted a pair of wrestlers. Here, Mulready shows the playground of a school; the schoolmaster has interrupted a fight, and seized the wrong culprit. It is an excellent example of a type of painting that needs to be 'read' through detail and gesture, like a written narrative, in order to comprehend the story. The type became increasingly popular as the century continued, as other pictures in this exhibition testify. |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Bibliographic references |
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| Collection | |
| Accession number | FA.139[O] |
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| Record created | December 15, 1999 |
| Record URL |
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