The 'who's who' of Victorian Britain: Epic panoramic featuring..the sells for nearly £10m [tr]

UK Daily Mail ^ | April 11, 2019 | James Wood

[C19fan]

An extraordinary painting which serves as a 'who's who' of Victorian Britain has sold for 'close to its asking price' of £10million.

William Powell Frith's 1881 panorama, titled 'The Private View at the Royal Academy', was purchased by a British art collector.

The painting's illustrious line-up includes Prime Minister William Gladstone, writers Oscar Wilde and Anthony Trollope, actors Henry Irving, Ellen Terry and Lily Langtry and the artists Frederic Lord Leighton and John Everett Millais.

Frith himself appears in the middle of the crowd, towards the back. The buyer has loaned the oil on canvas 2ft by 4ft painting to the Mercer Art Gallery in Frith's home town of Harrogate, north Yorkshire.

[C19fan]

Interesting how the artist felt comfortable including a bevy of actors and actresses. For most of history, thespians were about on par with prostitutes on social rankings.

[Sacajaweau]

Thespians were......

Nothing has changed

[morphing libertarian]

I think by 1890 theatre was more legitimate. With celebrities. Americans welcomed Brit actors and London booming. Wilde and such. My recollection

[Neidermeyer]

[sparklite2]

The most difficult part was getting
that many people to stand still for
as long as it took to paint them.

[dfwgator]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2GHlcwlT1Y

Long ago life was clean
Sex was bad, called obscene
And the rich were so mean
Stately homes for the Lords
Croquet lawns, village greens
Victoria was my queen

Victoria, Victoria, Victoria, ‘toria

I was born, lucky me
In a land that I love
Though I am poor, I am free
When I grow I shall fight
For this land I shall die
Let her sun never set

Victoria, Victoria, Victoria, ‘toria
Victoria, Victoria, Victoria, ‘toria
Land of hope and gloria
Land of my Victoria
Land of hope and gloria
Land of my Victoria
Victoria, ‘toria
Victoria, Victoria, Victoria, ‘toria

Canada to India
Australia to Cornwall
Singapore to Hong Kong
From the West to the East
From to the rich to the poor
Victoria loved them all

Victoria, Victoria, Victoria, ‘toria
Victoria, Victoria, Victoria

[karnage]

Thank you for posting a picture of the picture.

Nice!

[TonytheTiger7777]

A very important painting to those who love Wsetern Civ, but an affront to the latest crop of Socialist college students.

[bgill]

No painting is worth 10 million. Not much of anything is worth that.

[left that other site]

Naming the names in this picture would provably be more difficult that naming the names on the Sgt. Pepper Album Cover.

[Albion Wilde]

I think by 1890 theatre was more legitimate. With celebrities. Americans welcomed Brit actors and London booming. Wilde and such. My recollection

Wilde is in this painting on the right side, with the woman in orange to his right (your left) and a child in a light green suit in front of him.

[morphing libertarian]

Thanx

I am writing a story in which my lead takes 10 x 10 blocks of the east end of London and turns it into Old London East End a tourist attraction with features 1890s London. One of the attractions, walk up to Wilde, Dickens, Victoria and others and talk to them on the street. They are synths programmed to be that character,

[DanielRedfoot]

Sargent Peppers, 1860s