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A Village Choir

Oil Painting
1847 (exhibited)
Artist/Maker
Webster, Thomas (RA) (painter (artist))
Place of origin
England (painted)

This work illustrates Washington Irving's 'Christmas Day', from The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon (1820). His essay was a comical and sentimental account of an old-fashioned village choir and its musicians. The painting was probably Webster's most famous and admired work, critically praised for its 'truth and diversity of character'.

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Object details

Categories
Paintings
Musical Instruments
Religion
Object type
Oil painting
TitleA Village Choir (popular title)
Materials and techniques
Oil on panel
Oil Paint
Panel
Oil Painting
Brief description
Oil painting entitled 'A Village Choir' by Thomas Webster. Great Britain, 1847.
Physical description
Oil painting depicting a village choir, illustrating various "characters" in a rural church choir and band.
Dimensions
  • Estimate height: 60.4cm
  • Estimate width: 91.5cm
  • Frame dimensions height: 89cm
  • Frame dimensions width: 119cm
  • Frame dimensions depth: 11cm
Dimensions taken from Catalogue of British Oil Paintings 1820-1860, Ronald Parkinson, Victoria and Albert Museum, London: HMSO, 1990 Frame dimensions checked and correct January 2022
Styles
Victorian
British School
Credit line
Given by John Sheepshanks, 1857
Object history
Given by John Sheepshanks, 1857
Subjects depicted
Churches
Figures (Representations)
Musicians
Singers
Musical Instruments
Men
Women
Children
Carving
Interior Views
Arches
Places depicted
Buckinghamshire
All Saint's Church
Summary
This work illustrates Washington Irving's 'Christmas Day', from The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon (1820). His essay was a comical and sentimental account of an old-fashioned village choir and its musicians. The painting was probably Webster's most famous and admired work, critically praised for its 'truth and diversity of character'.
Associated objects
Bibliographic references
  • Baker, Malcolm, and Brenda Richardson (eds.), A Grand Design: The Art of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London: V&A Publications, 1999.
  • Catalogue of British Oil Paintings 1820-1860, Ronald Parkinson, Victoria and Albert Museum, London: HMSO, 1990, pp. 298-300
  • 100 Great Paintings in The Victoria & Albert Museum. London: V&A, 1985, p.144
  • ed. Carol Thompson, The Cranbrook Colony. Fresh Perspectives Wolverhampton: Wolverhampton Art Gallery, 2010. ISBN: 978-0-947642-28-0.
Collection
Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collection
Accession number
FA.222[O]

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Record createdDecember 15, 1999
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O18124/a-village-choir-oil-painting-webster-thomas-ra/
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