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Oil Painting - The Wife's Remonstrance

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© Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery

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Basic Information

Accession Number:1958P8
Collection:Fine Art Paintings and Sculpture
Date:1857 - 1858

Maker Information

Artist:James Campbell - View biography for James Campbell

Notes

The painting highlights several social issues of rural life. The scene shows a wife reproaching her husband for poaching a rabbit, a crime that could lead to prison. The effect of rural poverty is shown in the realistic depiction of the father, wife and daughter. They are thin and their clothes are dirty and unkempt. The wife has the muscular arms of a labourer.

John Ruskin (1819-1900) praised the painting as, ' by far the best picture in the Suffolk Street rooms this year...full of pathos, and true painting'. He then went on to chide the artist for the Pre-raphaelite preference for 'ugly things better than beautiful ones'.

The painting has been previously attributed to John Everitt Millais (1829-1896), influenced by Millais' reference to a work of his own called 'The Poachers Wife', mentioned in a letter to his wife, 4th May 1860.

Purchased in 1958 through the Trustees of the Feeney Charitable Trust, 1958.

Further Information

Production Period:19th century
School/Style:Narrative Poverty
Medium:Oil on canvas.
Material(s):Canvas

Dimensions

Height:737 mm
Width:485 mm