Dolly Varden (painting)

Last updated
Dolly Varden
Dolly Varden by William Powell Frith.jpg
Artist William Powell Frith
Year1842
Type Oil on canvas
Dimensions54.6 cm× 44.5 cm(21.5 in× 17.5 in)
Location Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Dolly Varden is an 1842 oil painting by the English artist William Powell Frith featuring the fictional character of Dolly Varden from the 1841 novel Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens. [1] [2]

During the early Victorian era there was a fashion for paintings based on works of theatre and literature, generally featuring popular characters and scenes. Barnaby Rudge was Dickens fifth published novel. It takes place around the time of the Gordon Riots in 1780. Frith, a member of the art group known as The Clique, first met Dickens at the time of the painting. The two men established a friendship that lasted until the author's death in 1870. [3]

The work was exhibited at the Society of British Artists. [4] Frith painted at least four versions of the painting, including one for Dickens himself. [5] The best known of these is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensington, London. [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Dickens</span> English novelist and social critic (1812–1870)

Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime and, by the 20th century, critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories are widely read today.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Powell Frith</span> English painter (1819–1909)

William Powell Frith was an English painter specialising in genre subjects and panoramic narrative works of life in the Victorian era. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1853, presenting The Sleeping Model as his Diploma work. He has been described as the "greatest British painter of the social scene since Hogarth".

<i>Barnaby Rudge</i> 1841 novel by Charles Dickens

Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of Eighty is a historical novel by English novelist Charles Dickens. Barnaby Rudge was one of two novels that Dickens published in his short-lived (1840–1841) weekly serial Master Humphrey's Clock. Barnaby Rudge is largely set during the Gordon Riots of 1780.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dolly Varden</span> Topics referred to by the same term

Dolly Varden may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Clique (art group)</span> Group of English artists formed in the 1830s

The Clique was a group of English artists formed by Richard Dadd in the late 1830s. Other members were Augustus Egg, Alfred Elmore, William Powell Frith, Henry Nelson O'Neil, John Phillip and Edward Matthew Ward.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Cattermole</span> British artist (1800–1868)

George Cattermole was a British painter and illustrator, chiefly in watercolours. He was a friend of Charles Dickens and many other literary and artistic figures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fred Barnard</span> British illustrator (1846–1896)

Frederick Barnard was an English illustrator, caricaturist and genre painter. He is noted for his work on the novels of Charles Dickens published between 1871 and 1879 by Chapman and Hall.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dolly Varden (costume)</span>

A Dolly Varden, in this sense, is a woman's outfit fashionable from about 1869 to 1875 in Britain and the United States. It is named after a character in Charles Dickens, and the items of clothing referred to are usually a hat or dress.

Dolly Vardens was a recurring name used for a number of baseball teams throughout the United States in the early decades of baseball (1860s-1880s). Most were white, male squads, though there was an all-female, African-American team from Chester PA, assembled by barber-turned-sports entrepreneur John Lang in the 1880s.

<i>Barnaby Rudge</i> (TV series) 1960 British TV series or programme

Barnaby Rudge is a British drama television series which originally aired on the BBC in thirteen episodes between 30 September and 23 December 1960. It was an adaptation of the 1841 novel Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens set against the backdrop of the 1780 Gordon Riots. The series survived the BBC's purge of the archives and was released on DVD in the USA around 2010, and later in the UK in 2017 by Simply Media. As well as being the only BBC adaptation, it remains the latest on-screen adaptation of the novel on film or television to date.

Barnaby Rudge is a 1915 British silent drama film directed by Thomas Bentley and Cecil M. Hepworth and starring Tom Powers, Stewart Rome and Violet Hopson. It was an adaptation of the 1841 novel Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens which was set amidst the 1780 Gordon Riots in London.

Barnaby is an Old English surname composed of the Saxon element beorn 'young warrior' and the Danish suffix by meaning 'settlement'. As a given name, it means "son of consolation" and is etymologically linked with the New Testament name Barnabas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Francis William Topham</span> English watercolour-painter and engraver

Francis William Topham was an English watercolourist and engraver.

Dolly Varden is an unincorporated community in Clark County, in the U.S. state of Ohio.

Dolly Varden was a British racing yacht.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Applicants for Admission to a Casual Ward</span> Painting by Luke Fildes

Applicants for Admission to a Casual Ward is an 1874 oil painting by British painter Luke Fildes, a key work in nineteenth-century British social realism. The painting shows a street scene of impoverished and weary men, women and children waiting by the side of the road outside a police station, huddled against the cold evening, waiting to be given a ticket for temporary admission to a workhouse for the night. Many resisted taking up permanent residence at the workhouse, where men and women would be separated, and would be required to work to pay for their board and lodging; once they entered, many only left when they died. Instead, from 1864, if the police in London certified that a person was genuinely in need, they could stay for one night on a "casual" basis, and leave the next morning, but they would have to queue up again for temporary admission the next evening. Poverty and vagrancy were pressing issues in Victorian London, and the issuance of "casual" tickets doubled from around 200,000 in 1864 to over 400,000 in 1869.

<i>Charles Dickens in His Study</i> Painting by William Powell Frith

Charles Dickens in His Study is an oil on canvas painting by English artist William Powell Frith, created in 1859. The painting is signed and dated at the lower left, 'W P Frith fecit 1859'. It is held at the Victoria and Albert Museum, in London.

<i>The Railway Station</i> 1862 painting by William Powell Frith

The Railway Station is an 1862 genre painting by the British artist William Powell Frith. The painting is held at Royal Holloway College, with a smaller version in the Royal Collection.

<i>An English Merrymaking a Hundred Years Ago</i> Painting by William Powell Frith

An English Merrymaking a Hundred Years Ago is an 1847 genre painting by the British artist William Powell Frith. During the early stages of his career Frith was a member of The Clique artistic group. He later became known for his panoramic crowd scenes The Derby Day and The Railway Station.

<i>The Fair Toxophilites</i> Painting by William Powell Frith

The Fair Toxophilites is an 1872 oil painting by the British artist William Powell Frith depicting three young women practicing archery. It also known by the title English Archers, Nineteenth Century. Today the painting is in the collection of the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, in Exeter.

References

Bibliography