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Frederick Walker, ARA (1840-1875)
The Lost Path, c. 1863
Oil on canvas
7½ x 5¼ in. (9.1 x 13.3 cm.)
Foundling Museum
Frederick Walker was a painter; born 26 May 1840, in London. Trained in architect’s office 1855, at Leigh’s Academy 1857 and Royal Academy Schools 1858, then with engraver Josiah Wood Whymper 1858–9; joined the Langham Artists’ Society 1859 and made his mark as an illustrator, contributing to publications including Once a Week and Cornhill Magazine, where his popular drawings for Thackeray’s The Adventures of Philip appeared; subsequently established a reputation as a watercolourist and oil painter of contemporary subjects, notable for their lyrical and poetic feeling and dealing with narrative and social realist themes; member of the Old Watercolour Society from 1864, exhibited at the RA during the 1860s and elected ARA 1871.
He was described by George Du Maurier as ‘small and slight, though beautifully made, with tiny hands and feet’. [4] Walker was a vivid and engaging personality and a sportsman, especially keen on hunting and fishing. Magdalene Keaney
Richard Redgrave RA (1804 - 1888
The Outcast, c. 1851
Oil on canvas
784 mm x 1071 mm x 22 mm
Royal Academy of Arts
The Outcast represents a fallen woman with her illegitimate child being evicted from her home by her stern father, despite the pleadings of the family. On the floor is a purse of money and an incriminating letter. The scene is made more pathetic by the snowy wastes outside the door and the innocent child’s hand raised in echo of the hand of the pleading sister. More on this painting
Richard Redgrave (1804–1888) was an English painter, writer, and art administrator. He began as a painter of anecdotal literary subjects, often in 18th-century costume, but in the 1840s he became a pioneer of scenes of contemporary social concern (The Poor Teacher, 1845, Shipley AG, Gateshead). ‘It is one of my most gratifying feelings’, he wrote, ‘that many of my best efforts in art have aimed at calling attention to the trials and struggles of the poor and the oppressed.’ In his later career his artistic output consisted mainly of landscapes painted when he was on holiday, as most of his time was taken up with administration: he was Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures (see Royal Collection) from 1857 to 1880, and also held various posts at the Government School of Design (which became the Royal College of Art) and the South Kensington (later Victoria and Albert) Museum. More on Richard Redgrave (1804–1888)
In an age when sexual innocence was highly valued and sex life for a respectable woman was deemed appropriate only within marriage, the loss of chastity for an unwed woman had multiple repercussions. The figure of the ‘fallen’ woman has been mythologised through contemporary art, journalism and literature as Victorian moralists warned against the consequences of losing one’s virtue. The Foundling Museum.
George Frederic Watts (1817–1904)
Found Drowned, c. 1867
Oil on canvas
Watts Gallery
Found Drowned is an oil painting by George Frederic Watts, c. 1850, inspired by Thomas Hood's 1844 poem The Bridge of Sighs.
The painting depicts the dead body of a woman washed up beneath the arch of Waterloo Bridge, with her lower body still immersed in the water of the River Thames. She is presumed to have drowned after having thrown herself in the river in despair to escape the shame of being a "fallen woman". The grey industrial cityscape of the south bank of the Thames is barely visible in the background through thick smog. Dressed simply, perhaps a servant, her arms and body form the shape of a cross, much remeniscent of the crucifixion of Christ. She holds a locket and chain in one hand, indicating her attachment to her lover; a single star is visible as a sign of hope in the sky above. More on this painting
George Frederic Watts was born in Marylebone, London, the delicate son of a poor piano-maker. He showed promise very early, learning sculpture from the age of 10 with William Behnes and enrolling as a student at the Royal Academy at the age of 18. He came to the public eye with a drawing entitled Caractacus, which was entered for a competition to design murals for the new Houses of Parliament at Westminster in 1843. Watts won a first prize in the competition, which was intended to promote narrative paintings on patriotic subjects, appropriate to the nation's legislature. In the end Watts made little contribution to the Westminster decorations, but from it he conceived his vision of a building covered with murals representing the spiritual and social evolution of humanity.
Visiting Italy in the mid-1840s, Watts was inspired by Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel and Giotto's Scrovegni Chapel, but back in Britain he was unable to obtain a building in which to carry out his plan. In consequence most of his major works are conventional oil paintings, some of which were intended as studies for the House of Life. More on George Frederic Watts
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