
Thomas WebsterEngland, 1800–1886Må man se det?
London, Storbritannien
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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.
Victoria and Albert Museum