| At the Opera | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | William Powell Frith |
| Year | 1855 |
| Type | Oil on canvas, genre painting |
| Dimensions | 34.9 cm× 45 cm(13.7 in× 18 in) |
| Location | Harris Museum, Preston |
At the Opera is an 1855 oil painting by the British artist William Powell Frith. It depicts a young woman seated in box in an opera house, with a wrap around her shoulders and clutching a pair of opera glasses. Rather than a portrait painting, it depicts an artist's model as a generalised type of fashionable beauty of the Victorian era. [1] The picture was admired by Prince Albert. [2]
Although Frith became known for his large, bustling scenes of everyday life such as The Derby Day and The Railway Station he also produced many smaller, more intimate works such as this. The picture was displayed at the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1855 in London [3] Today the painting is in the collection of the Harris Museum of Preston in Lancashire, having been donated in 1883 by the Preston-born lawyer Richard Newsham. [4]
