William Powell Frith, R.A.

Christie’s, London, 4 May 1889, lot 139;
James B. Andrews, by 1951;
Christie's, New York, 23 October 2007, lot 170

London, Royal Academy, 1888, no.26

Blackburn, H., Academy Notes, 1888. p.1, illustrated pl.23;
Royal Academy Illustrated, 1888, p.16;
Art Journal, 1888, p.181;
Athenaeum, 26 May 1888, p.668;
Punch, 14 July 1888, p.16;
Ernest Govett, Art Principles with Special Reference to Painting, together with Note on the Illusions Produced by the Painter, 1919, p.178;
Susan P. Casteras, ‘Seeing the Unseen: Pictorial Problematics and Victorian Images of Class, Poverty, and Urban Life’ in Victorian Literature and the Victorian Visual Imagination, 1995, pp.269-270;
Mark Bills and Vivien Knight, William Powell Frith, Painting in the Victorian Age, 2006, illustrated p.56, plate 58 (detail) and p.69, pl.66;
Christopher Wood, William Powell Frith - A Painter & his World, 2006, p.231, illustrated opposite p.145 plate 12;
Simon Knowles ‘Pavement, Gutter, Carriageway: Social Order and Urban Spaces in the Work of W. P. Frith’, in Victorian Literature and Culture, 2011, pp.360-362, illustrated fig.5

The picture is unlined and in good condition. The paint surface is a little dirty and may benefit from a light clean. There is a very faint craquelure pattern but this is only visible upon close inspection. UNDER ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT There are flecked retouchings throughout but these appear to be cosmetic infillings and there are no repaired tears or holes. The varnish is a little opaque and uneven. FRAME The picture is contained in an attractive Victorian gilt moulded frame.
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'In terms of prices and popular appeal, William Powell Frith (1819-1909) was the most successful painter of his generation... He was a pioneer in the field of modern-life painting, and Life at the Seaside (Ramsgate Sounds), Derby Day, and The Railway Station remain unsurpassed as icons of the Victorian age.'
Mark Bills and Vivien Knight, William Powell Frith: Painting the Victorian Age, 2006, p.1

As the title implies, Poverty and Wealth is a painting of two opposing worlds and each is separated from the other through the division of the composition – the poor on the right and the rich on the left. It is a pictorial comment upon injustice and morals in contemporary society. An elegantly-dressed young mother is preparing to board a landau where her trio of children wait for her with their governesses, enveloped in ruffles of bright-white lace. Behind her, one of the footmen is carrying a large model Noah’s ark, a purchase for one of the children from the toy-shop the window of which can be seen displaying dolls and a hobby-horse. The contrast on the right is stark as a queue of people, mainly children, are buying fish from a monger at the end of the day when the remnants were sold for a fraction of their price. These are not the destitute of London’s streets but they are certainly from the lower-end of the economic ladder. When the picture was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1888 one of the art critics suggested that the old woman dressed in a green shawl who looks at the wealthy family with an expression of consternation as ‘not innocent of gin’ and felt that the artist had seldom painted ‘dingy urchins and dishevelled women’ (Athenaeum, 26 May 1888, p.668) better. The way in which the figures are portrayed echoes the writings of Charles Dickens whose novels Oliver Twist and David Copperfield are the literary equivalent of some of Frith’s paintings. There is a widow with her infant in her arms who urges her daughter forward to collect the fish, the girl’s caution perhaps suggesting that their circumstances have only recently changed and it is her first visit. This is a painting that eloquently describes the inequalities of Victorian London, through Frith's perceptive observation and translation of details of costume, physiognomy and narrative. This categorising of the different strata of society reflects the Victorian pre-occupation with an academic approach to classification, reflected most notably in Darwin’s On the Origin of the Species and by the popularity of collecting in the nineteenth century. In Frith’s paintings every figure is a contrast to another character and the different ‘characters’ play a ‘role’ as an actor might in a play or a protagonist might in a book. A similar contrast was made in Frith’s painting of 1881 For Better, for Worse (private collection) in which a wealthy marriage party is watched by a crossing-sweeper and a poor family.

Frith was one of the most popular artists of his era and on six occasions railings had to be constructed around his paintings when they were exhibited at the Royal Academy to hold back to crowds of admirers. Among his most famous paintings were Ramsgate Sands of 1854 which was purchased by Queen Victoria, Derby Day of 1862 and The Private View of the Royal Academy of 1883 all of which capture the tumult of the Victorian age.