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Men and women in costume

Drawing
ca. 1860-1927 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Sir (Samuel) Luke Fildes (1843-1927) was a major English illustrator and painter. He was born in Liverpool, the son of a shipping agent. He attended evening classes in art at the Mechanics' Institute, Chester, and moved to London in 1863 having won a scholarship to study at the Government Art Training School, South Kensington; an institution linked to the South Kensington Museum, now the V&A. He went on to study at the Royal Academy Schools. He started his artistic career as an illustrator, with a strongly realist style based on direct drawings from nature. When Fildes began to exhibit oil paintings he quickly developed a radical form of "social realist" painting, combining the campaigning subject matter of contemporary journalism and novelists such as Dickens - the urban poor and the effects of industrialization - with the scale and rhetoric of traditional history painting.

This drawing is one of 265 works acquired by the museum through descent from the artist (museum numbers E.451-715-2003). The V&A is the principal repository of Fildes's drawings, having received major gifts in 1971, 1977 and 1987. The bequest of 1971 (E.580-981-1971) was from the son of the artist, Sir Paul Fildes, O.B.E., F.R.S. Sir Paul had compiled a Catalogue raisonné of the published reproductions of Luke Fildes's drawings, revised in 1965, but which remained unpublished; a typescript of this is in the National Art Library (formerly E.981-1971, now L.5859-1975, pressmark 86.W.71). This provided much information about the works which made up the gift. The bequest of 1977 was from Mrs Kitty Whittaker-Ellis, daughter of the artist (E.1704-1804-1977), and that of 1987 came via another daughter, Mrs Cedric Ripley, (E.65-142-1987). The 2003 gift similarly descended from the family and ranges from slight sketches, to worked up designs, probably for Fildes's published illustrative works.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleMen and women in costume (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Pencil on paper
Brief description
Three pencil sketches of men and woman in costumes, sketch of woman in costume on reverse, attributed to Luke Fildes (1844-1927), Great Britain, ca. 1860-1927.
Physical description
Five sketches on one sheet of paper:- full length woman in detailed dress holding a fan; full length man in costume with a sword sheathed at his hip; full length woman standing; rough sketch of the back of a ladies head; on the reverse is a rough sketch of a seated woman.
Dimensions
  • Height: 162mm
  • Width: 250mm
Marks and inscriptions
  • 'white stockings' (Location : bottom, right Medium : pencil)
  • illegible inscription (Location : bottom, left Medium : pencil)
Credit line
Given by Mrs Pamela Myers through Art Fund
Object history
Gift of Mrs Pamela Myers through The Art Fund; by descent from the artist
Subjects depicted
Summary
Sir (Samuel) Luke Fildes (1843-1927) was a major English illustrator and painter. He was born in Liverpool, the son of a shipping agent. He attended evening classes in art at the Mechanics' Institute, Chester, and moved to London in 1863 having won a scholarship to study at the Government Art Training School, South Kensington; an institution linked to the South Kensington Museum, now the V&A. He went on to study at the Royal Academy Schools. He started his artistic career as an illustrator, with a strongly realist style based on direct drawings from nature. When Fildes began to exhibit oil paintings he quickly developed a radical form of "social realist" painting, combining the campaigning subject matter of contemporary journalism and novelists such as Dickens - the urban poor and the effects of industrialization - with the scale and rhetoric of traditional history painting.

This drawing is one of 265 works acquired by the museum through descent from the artist (museum numbers E.451-715-2003). The V&A is the principal repository of Fildes's drawings, having received major gifts in 1971, 1977 and 1987. The bequest of 1971 (E.580-981-1971) was from the son of the artist, Sir Paul Fildes, O.B.E., F.R.S. Sir Paul had compiled a Catalogue raisonné of the published reproductions of Luke Fildes's drawings, revised in 1965, but which remained unpublished; a typescript of this is in the National Art Library (formerly E.981-1971, now L.5859-1975, pressmark 86.W.71). This provided much information about the works which made up the gift. The bequest of 1977 was from Mrs Kitty Whittaker-Ellis, daughter of the artist (E.1704-1804-1977), and that of 1987 came via another daughter, Mrs Cedric Ripley, (E.65-142-1987). The 2003 gift similarly descended from the family and ranges from slight sketches, to worked up designs, probably for Fildes's published illustrative works.
Collection
Accession number
E.467-2003

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Record createdJuly 14, 2004
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