Dudley Cleaver
Drawing
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Not receiving at present
Victoria and Albert Museum
London, United Kingdom
It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.
- Checked
- 7 days ago
- In this state since
- Sep 25, 2026
- Source
- The museum's own collection data
About the work
Line Drawn illustration in pen and ink created for publication in an illustrated newspaper or magazine, probably the Penny Illustrated Paper.
The image is labelled 'The Handel Festival at the Crystal Palace' and shows a women singing before a large audience. She is being accompanied by an orchestra and the conductor stands to her left. The illustration has not been signed or dated but annotation on the rear indicates it was drawn by the artist Dudley Cleaver (b.1872) and the dress of the female performer, with its high collar and full sleeves, resembles that worn in the late 1880s or early 1890s.
Read on
The Handel Festival appears to have taken place at Crystal Palace, London on a Triennial basis between 1859 and 1926 The last Handel Festival took place there in 1926, with Sir Henry Wood as conductor. Some rare recordings survive from the 1888 festival; these were the first ever recordings made in a live concert environment.
The Crystal Palace was a vast cast-iron and plate-glass building originally erected in Hyde Park, London, England, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. After the exhibition, the building was moved to a new park in Penge Common, near Sydenham Hill, which was then a suburb full of large villas, it remained there from 1854 to 1936, when it was destroyed by fire.
This sketch is one of several theatrical drawings from a collection of sketches commissioned from contemporary artists to be printed in illustrated magazines. The collection was donated to the museum by Sir William James Ingram in 1914.
Victoria and Albert Museum
Particulars
- Accession number
- S.383-2011
In the catalog
Sources
- Victoria and Albert Museum: the museum's own open data · fetched 7 days ago
- Image: Victoria and Albert Museum — © Victoria and Albert Museum, London
