Suspicion
Oil Painting
1848 (exhibited)
1848 (exhibited)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Object Type
Oil paintings depicting the Italian and Swiss countryside grew in popularity in the first half of the 19th century. They appealed particularly to collectors such as John Sheepshanks and the Reverend Chauncey Hare Townshend.
People
Thomas Uwins (1782-1857) had worked first as a watercolourist, miniature and portrait painter, and book illustrator. After visiting France, living in Scotland and then in Italy, he returned to England. He soon specialised in oil paintings of Italian genre subjects.
Subjects Depicted
Most of his works represented happy Italian peasants but in this painting a loftier theme with a note of tragedy is introduced. The painting was exhibited in 1848 with a quotation from an Italian story.
'Poor Rosa! To relieve the solitude of the villa she would have her chair taken out on the terrace where she would sit for hours listening to the music of a wandering minstrel: even this pleasure was at last denied her. Donna Chiara the old nun in the household took it into her wise head that the minstrel was a lover in disguise.'
The theme of the suspicious old woman taking her role of tyrannical chaperone to extremes was one that many Victorian young ladies could sympathise with.
Oil paintings depicting the Italian and Swiss countryside grew in popularity in the first half of the 19th century. They appealed particularly to collectors such as John Sheepshanks and the Reverend Chauncey Hare Townshend.
People
Thomas Uwins (1782-1857) had worked first as a watercolourist, miniature and portrait painter, and book illustrator. After visiting France, living in Scotland and then in Italy, he returned to England. He soon specialised in oil paintings of Italian genre subjects.
Subjects Depicted
Most of his works represented happy Italian peasants but in this painting a loftier theme with a note of tragedy is introduced. The painting was exhibited in 1848 with a quotation from an Italian story.
'Poor Rosa! To relieve the solitude of the villa she would have her chair taken out on the terrace where she would sit for hours listening to the music of a wandering minstrel: even this pleasure was at last denied her. Donna Chiara the old nun in the household took it into her wise head that the minstrel was a lover in disguise.'
The theme of the suspicious old woman taking her role of tyrannical chaperone to extremes was one that many Victorian young ladies could sympathise with.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Suspicion (assigned by artist) |
| Materials and techniques | Oil on panel |
| Brief description | Oil painting by Thomas Uwins entitled 'Suspicion'. Great Britain, ca. 1848. |
| Physical description | Oil on panel depicting three figures, a lady seated on a terrace, being serenaded by a minstrel playing the harp. She appears to be absorbed in the music, and simultaneously regarded with suspicion by a nun-like housekeeper or 'duenna' who stands, cloaked in black, behind her mistress's chair. Dated 1848. |
| Dimensions |
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| Styles | |
| Marks and inscriptions | 'T. Uwins. R.A./1848' (Signed and dated by the artist (?) on back) |
| Gallery label |
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| Credit line | Given by John Sheepshanks, 1857 |
| Object history | Given by John Sheepshanks, 1857. By Thomas Uwins RA (born in London, 1782, died in Staines, Surrey, 1857) Exhibited at the British Institution 1848 |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Summary | Object Type Oil paintings depicting the Italian and Swiss countryside grew in popularity in the first half of the 19th century. They appealed particularly to collectors such as John Sheepshanks and the Reverend Chauncey Hare Townshend. People Thomas Uwins (1782-1857) had worked first as a watercolourist, miniature and portrait painter, and book illustrator. After visiting France, living in Scotland and then in Italy, he returned to England. He soon specialised in oil paintings of Italian genre subjects. Subjects Depicted Most of his works represented happy Italian peasants but in this painting a loftier theme with a note of tragedy is introduced. The painting was exhibited in 1848 with a quotation from an Italian story. 'Poor Rosa! To relieve the solitude of the villa she would have her chair taken out on the terrace where she would sit for hours listening to the music of a wandering minstrel: even this pleasure was at last denied her. Donna Chiara the old nun in the household took it into her wise head that the minstrel was a lover in disguise.' The theme of the suspicious old woman taking her role of tyrannical chaperone to extremes was one that many Victorian young ladies could sympathise with. |
| Bibliographic reference | Catalogue of British Oil Paintings 1820-1860, Ronald Parkinson, Victoria and Albert Museum, London: HMSO, 1990, pp. 286-87 |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | FA.212[O] |
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| Record created | March 5, 2001 |
| Record URL |
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