Object Type
Oil paintings such as this with subjects taken from popular literature steadily replaced commissions for history paintings in the early 19th century. The public and most collectors of modern works started to prefer lighter and sometimes more sentimental themes.
Subjects Depicted
The subject is taken from the opening sentences of Oliver Goldsmith's novel 'The Vicar of Wakefield': 'I had scarce taken orders a year before I began to think seriously of matrimony, and chose my wife, as she did her wedding gown, not for a fine glossy surface, but for such qualities as would wear well.' Mulready had already provided a frontispiece for an 1843 edition of the novel - the composition on which this painting is based. It was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1846 and was an immense success.
People
John Sheepshanks (1787-1863), the industrialist and collector, owned many paintings with subjects taken from well-known authors, such as Shakespeare, Chaucer and Molière. He particularly admired the work of the artist Mulready, so much so, that he bought 31 of his paintings, often at very high prices.
Physical description
Oil on panel depicting a group portrait scene from Goldsmith's 'The Vicar of Wakefield'. The bride-to-be is carefully inspecting the fabric from a roll on a counter, whilst the merchant on the other side attempts to persuade her of its quality.
Place of Origin
Great Britain, UK (made)
Date
1845 (made)
1846 (exhibited)
Artist/maker
Mulready, born 1786 - died 1863 (painter (artist))
Materials and Techniques
oil on panel
Dimensions
Height: 52.9 cm, Width: 44.7 cm, Height: 72 cm frame, Width: 64 cm frame, Depth: 7 cm frame
Object history note
Given by John Sheepshanks, 1857. By William Mulready RA (born in Ennis, County Clare, Ireland, 1786, died in London, 1863)
Exhibited at the Royal Academy 1846
Descriptive line
Oil painting by William Mulready entitled 'Choosing the Wedding Gown' (Goldsmith, 'The Vicar of Wakefield', Chapter 1). Great Britain, 1845.
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
Catalogue of British Oil Paintings 1820-1860, Ronald Parkinson, Victoria and Albert Museum, London: HMSO, 1990, pp. 205-206
The following is the full text of the entry:
"MULREADY, William, RA (1786-1863)
Born Ennis, County Clare, Ireland, 1 April (not 30 as is sometimes recorded) 1786, son of a leather breeches maker and amateur draughtsman. Moved to Dublin 1797, London about 1799; encouraged by the Scottish painter John Graham and the sculptor Joseph Banks, entered RA Schools 1800 (won silver medal for drawing 1806). Pupil and assistant of John Varley, whose sister Elizabeth (also an artist) he married 1803 (separated 1810). Exhibited 78 works at the RA between 1804 and 1862, and five at the BI 1808-9 and 1826. Wide range of subjects in early years, including history and portraits, but by 1815 almost exclusively domestic subjects of precise detail and brilliant colour, and with Wilkie the most popular and admired artist in the genre. He noted his own goals as 'Story, Character, Expression, Beauty'. Elected ARA 1815, RA 1816. Many book illustrations; accomplished draughtsman, particularly perhaps of academic nude studies. Designed first penny postage envelope 1840. Elected member of many distinguished institutions at home and abroad. Died 7 July 1863; his studio sale was at Christie's 28-30 April 1864. His four sons Paul Augustus, William junior (see entry below), Michael (see entry above) and John were all trained as artists. Much manuscript and graphic material in National Art Library and V&A collections, also Tate Gallery.
LIT: F G Stephens Memorials ofWilliam Mulready RA 1890; A Rorimer Drawings by William Mulready V&A exhibition catalogue 1972; K Heleniak William Mulready 1980; M Pointon Mulready V&A exhibition book and catalogue 1986. (The three last all have full bibliographies)
The most comprehensive recent catalogue raisonée of Mulready's works, arranged in chronological order, has been compiled by Kathryn Moore Heleniak, in her book William Mulready 1980, which provides the basis for the following entries. Her numbers have been quoted, and a brief resume given of her listing of alternative versions and related drawings. Further reference should be made to both her book and to Marcia Pointon's catalogue Mulready which accompanied the exhibition of 1986 held at the V&A, National Gallery, Dublin and Ulster Museum, Belfast; to Heleniak for more detailed comments on related works and documentation and Pointon for social commentary and aesthetic analysis.
Choosing the Wedding Gown
FA145 Neg 7627
Panel, 52.9 × 44.7 cm (21 × 17 ¾ ins) Sheepshanks Gift, 1857
Heleniak (163) records an oil sketch (location unknown) and a cartoon in red chalk and pencil, private collection (repr pl 136).
The subject is taken from the opening sentences of Oliver Goldsmith's novel The Vicar of Wakefield '... I had scarce taken orders a year before I began to think seriously of matrimony, and chose my wife, as she did her wedding gown, not for a fine glossy surface, but for such qualities as would wear well.' Mulready had provided a frontispiece for Van Voorst's 1843 edition of the novel- the composition on which this painting is based. When first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1846 (140) the work scored an immense success, and proved to be one of the artist's most acclaimed paintings.
Oliver Goldsmith's works were one of the most popular pictorial sources for academic painters, so frequently used as subjects that W M Thackeray, whose little-known art criticism is a valuable guide to Victorian taste, refused to review any more paintings on these themes. His resolution was broken however when he saw and admired the 'Wedding Gown' which he described in The Morning Chronicle (5 May, 1846): 'For colour and finish it may rank by any cabinet picture of any master. It does not create pleasure merely, but astonishment ... a blaze of fireworks is not more intensely brilliant: it must illuminate the whole room at night, when everybody is gone, and flare out like a chemist's bottle ... '. Thackeray's praise was echoed by the Examiner (1846, p293): 'a subject which admits of the artist indulging in the deepest luxury of colour without appearing unnatural. The richness of the stuffs in the foreground, the harmonising browns of the counter, the equally rich pure blue in which both are set, are real; only expressed to ordinary eyes as intensely as the painter sees them.'
Like Landseer's Old Shepherd's Chief Mourner this famous painting continued to attract many other laudatory commentaries throughout the 19th century. For a more extensive listing, including liberal quotations therefrom, see Arts Council Great Victorian Pictures 1978, (39). References chart the progress of the composition in Mulready's account book, and Sheepshank's payments. According to F G Stephens (p95) he received 1000 guineas for the work.
EXH: RA 1846 (140); Society of Arts 1848 (XXXI), 1855 (889); William Mulready South Kensington Museum 1864 (93), Guildhall, 1904 (88); Arts Council Great Victorian Pictures, 1978 (39); William Mulready V&A 1986 (141)
Ronald Parkinson"
Exhibition History
Napoléon III et la reine Victoria: Une visite à l'Exposition universelle de 1855 (Musées et Domaine nationaux de Compiègne, Chateau de Compiegne 03/10/2008-19/01/2009)
Labels and date
British Galleries:
John Sheepshanks, the industrialist and collector, supported the artist Mulready and is said to have paid the large sum of £1050 for this painting which shows a scene from a popular novel of the time. This is the kind of subject that would have been understood by a wider audience than more traditional historic subjects. [27/03/2003]
Materials
Oil paint; Panel
Techniques
Oil painting
Subjects depicted
Wedding dresses; Marriage; Wedding; Fabric; Inspection
Categories
British Galleries; Paintings; Marriage; Shopping
Collection code
PDP
