The Fair Toxophilites

The Fair Toxophilites
Artist	William Powell Frith
Year	1872
Type	Oil on canvas
Dimensions	98.2 cm× 81.7 cm(38.7 in× 32.2 in)
Location	Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter

The Fair Toxophilites is an 1872 oil painting by the British artist William Powell Frith depicting three young women practicing archery. ^[1] 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. ^[2]

The three women portrayed were Frith's daughters Alice, Fanny and Louise. They are all dressed in a very fashionable way, reflecting their upper class status. It reflects the Victorian era archery craze, referred to in the novel Daniel Deronda by George Eliot. ^{[3] [4]} Frith exhibited it at the Royal Academy's 1873 Summer Exhibition alongside another featuring women playing billiards. The review in The Athenaeum , which was generally hostile to Frith's work, was critical. A more positive reception came from The Art Journal and The Times . ^[5]

References

1. Cohen p.33
2. https://rammcollections.org.uk/collections/13460e52-3422-39f6-84e3-799483e0bdf4/
3. Rogers p.400
4. Wood p.157
5. Wood p. 157-59

Bibliography

• Cohen, Michael. Sisters: Relation and Rescue in Nineteenth-century British Novels and Paintings. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1995.
• Green, Richard & Sellars, Jane. William Powell Frith: The People's Painter. Bloomsbury, 2019.
• Rogers, Pat (ed.) The Oxford Illustrated History of English Literature. Oxford University Press, 2001.
• Trotter, David. William Powell Frith: Painting the Victorian Age. Yale University Press, 2006
• Wood, Christopher. William Powell Frith: A Painter and His World. Sutton Publishing, 2006.