Contrary Winds
Oil Painting
1843 (made)
1843 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Object Type
Oil paintings with sentimental scenes of children in the countryside became popular with collectors such as John Sheepshanks and the Reverend Chauncy Hare Townshend, as well as with the Victorian public in general.
Subjects Depicted
This picture shows an idyllic scene of childhood set in a cottage. The children are playing 'sailing boats', blowing on a piece of wood with a paper sail, floating in the family wash tub. When it was exhibited at the British Institution in 1844, the critics noted that the game had not yet become very animated and the whole picture was really a study of a cottage interior with admirably painted figures in rather a Dutch style.
People
Thomas Webster (1800-1886) began as a portrait painter, but went on to produce small-scale subject pictures in oil and watercolour for the rest of his long career. His most famous and popular work, The Village Choir, often reproduced for book and other illustration, is also in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Charles Dickens thought Webster was such a good a painter of children that he commissioned him to paint Squeers School-Dotheboys Hall, an illustration to his novel Nicholas Nickelby.
Oil paintings with sentimental scenes of children in the countryside became popular with collectors such as John Sheepshanks and the Reverend Chauncy Hare Townshend, as well as with the Victorian public in general.
Subjects Depicted
This picture shows an idyllic scene of childhood set in a cottage. The children are playing 'sailing boats', blowing on a piece of wood with a paper sail, floating in the family wash tub. When it was exhibited at the British Institution in 1844, the critics noted that the game had not yet become very animated and the whole picture was really a study of a cottage interior with admirably painted figures in rather a Dutch style.
People
Thomas Webster (1800-1886) began as a portrait painter, but went on to produce small-scale subject pictures in oil and watercolour for the rest of his long career. His most famous and popular work, The Village Choir, often reproduced for book and other illustration, is also in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Charles Dickens thought Webster was such a good a painter of children that he commissioned him to paint Squeers School-Dotheboys Hall, an illustration to his novel Nicholas Nickelby.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Contrary Winds (assigned by artist) |
| Materials and techniques | Oil on mahogany panel |
| Brief description | Oil painting entitled 'Contrary Winds' by Thomas Webster. Great Britain, 1843. |
| Physical description | Oil on mahogany panel depicting four children seated around a wooden bath of water, playing with a small paper boat they have made. There is an elderly woman seated to the left, sowing. Signed and dated 1843. |
| Dimensions |
|
| Styles | |
| Marks and inscriptions | 'T Webster./1843' (Signed and dated by the artist, lower right) |
| Gallery label | British Galleries:
Sheepshanks was a regular patron of this artist. This portrayal of a country cottage interior shows a children's game in progress. It is an idealised view of poverty and rural life in England, which the picture buying public would have enjoyed.(27/03/2003) |
| Credit line | Given by John Sheepshanks, 1857 |
| Object history | Given by John Sheepshanks, 1857. By Thomas Webster RA (born in London, 1800, died in Cranbrook, Kent, 1886) Exhibited at the British Institution 1844 |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Summary | Object Type Oil paintings with sentimental scenes of children in the countryside became popular with collectors such as John Sheepshanks and the Reverend Chauncy Hare Townshend, as well as with the Victorian public in general. Subjects Depicted This picture shows an idyllic scene of childhood set in a cottage. The children are playing 'sailing boats', blowing on a piece of wood with a paper sail, floating in the family wash tub. When it was exhibited at the British Institution in 1844, the critics noted that the game had not yet become very animated and the whole picture was really a study of a cottage interior with admirably painted figures in rather a Dutch style. People Thomas Webster (1800-1886) began as a portrait painter, but went on to produce small-scale subject pictures in oil and watercolour for the rest of his long career. His most famous and popular work, The Village Choir, often reproduced for book and other illustration, is also in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Charles Dickens thought Webster was such a good a painter of children that he commissioned him to paint Squeers School-Dotheboys Hall, an illustration to his novel Nicholas Nickelby. |
| Bibliographic reference | Catalogue of British Oil Paintings 1820-1860, Ronald Parkinson, Victoria and Albert Museum, London: HMSO, 1990, pp. 300-301 |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | FA.223[O] |
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| Record created | March 5, 2001 |
| Record URL |
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