William Powell Frith RA (1819-1909)

William Powell Frith RA (1819-1909)
Coming of Age in the Olden Time
Signed and dated W P Frith 1849 (lower right)
Oil on canvas
127.8 x 200.3cm; 50¼ x 78¾in

Provenance:
Commissioned by James Eden, Bolton;
The commission taken over by Messrs Lloyd, London;
From whom purchased by Mr Grundy, London (£650);
Thos Agnew & Sons, Manchester;
Edward Chapman, Hill End, Mottram, by 1887;
By descent to George J. Chapman, Hill End Mottram;
Edward Chapman, Hill End, Mottram;
Christie's, London, 21 November 1924, lot 138, where purchased by Sampson (1,050 gns);
Private Collection, New York;
Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 9 December 1949, lot 278;
Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 3 June 1971, lot 96;
Private Collection, New York;
Christie's, New York, 30 October 1985, lot 302;
Owen Edgar Gallery, London, 1987;
Private Collection;
Sotheby's, London, Victorian Pictures, 2 November 1994, lot 115;
Private Collection, Gloucestershire

Exhibited:
London, Royal Academy, 1849, no.349;
Manchester, Royal Jubilee Exhibition, 1887, no.353;
Manchester, City Art Gallery (as part of a display of paintings from the collection of the Chapman family, Hill End, Mottram), 1908;
Rome, The International Fine Arts Exhibition, 1911, British Section, no.25

Literature:
Art Journal, 1849, p.172;
William Powell Frith, My Autobiography and Reminiscences (Richard Bentley & Son, London), vol.I, pp.185-187, 192, 194;
A. G. Temple, The Art of Painting in the Queen's Reign, (Chapman and Hall, London, 1897), p.148;
Aubrey Noakes, William Frith: Extraordinary Victorian Painter (Jupiter, London, 1978), pp.46 (illustrated), 49;
Roy Strong, And when did you last see your father? The Victorian Painter and British History (Thames & Hudson, London, 1978), pp.43, 90-93;
Christopher Wood, William Powell Frith: A Painter and his World (Sutton Publishing, 2006), pp.25-26, 94, 107;
David Trotter, William Powell Frith: Painting the Victorian Age (Yale University Press, 2006), pp.ix, 8-9, pl.13

Engraved:
Francis Holl, published by the Art Union of Glasgow, 1854

Coming of Age in the Olden Time was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1849 and was the outstanding painting of William Powell Frith's career to date. It represents the culmination of the first phase of Frith's career and, in the words of The Art Journal was 'superior to everything that has preceded it from the same hand'.

Frith has set the work in the courtyard of a mansion during the Elizabethan period. The young lord stands on the steps to the right, listening to an address of congratulations by the old man below. The heir is accompanied by his mother and father, and his grandmother is seated nearby. Below him a group of villagers have thronged, some bearing gifts, such as the plumed helmet, falcon and two hounds. Beyond the celebratory feast is in full swing, with wine and ale flowing, and an ox roasting.

Frith began the present work in September 1848, after his summer holiday in Scarborough. He did not finish the work until April the following year, when he immediately dispatched it to the Royal Academy where it was one of the highlights of the Summer Exhibition. Frith stated that he based the background on Heslington Hall near York, and Hever Castle in Kent, although Roy Strong has noted that features also seem to derive from Joseph Nash's The Mansions of England in the Olden Times. Similarly details of the dress were incorporated from engravings in F. W. Fairholt's Costume in England. Frith also went to see an ox being roasted at a cattle market in Islington, later saying that 'neither sight nor smell were altogether pleasant, and the company was doubtful'.

Frith's early works were mostly based on literary subjects, from the novels of Charles Dickens, Walter Scott and Oliver Goldsmith. In the late 1840s he started to depart from these literary subjects, and started to explore the costumes and festivities of the past. Coming of Age in the Olden Time marks both the zenith and conclusion of Frith's early career. Thereafter, he focused on subjects of modern life, which he called 'hat and trouser pictures'. However, both Frith's historical and contemporary paintings feature the same themes and elements that make his work so compelling. His interest in incidental detail; the individualisation of each figure and their relationship to each other; and a remarkable ability to depict a panoramic representation of various elements of society, made him one of the most popular and successful artists of the Victorian era.

Testament to the popularity of Coming of Age in the Olden Time is the fact that Frith was asked to paint two further smaller versions. The first was also executed in 1849, and was commissioned by the noted collector Thomas Miller. It was also planned that Miller's version would be used as the basis for an engraving. However, James Eden, who had originally commissioned our prime version, objected to the idea of a copy. The situation was resolved when the dealer Lloyd took over the commission of our version from Eden. A final, much smaller version was painted in 1907.