The Old Curiosity Shop

This is one of several canvases by Chapman, based on incidents in Charles's Dickens's eponymous novel of 1841. In the present picture, Little Nell sits in the Old Curiosity Shop with her admirer Kit Nubbles, while her grandfather looks on. An oil of the same title, with Little Nell seated in a chair and her grandfather glimpsed in a back room, was sold at Christie's London, 19 December 1991, lot 181, for 9,000, whilst Chapman's Royal Academy exhibit of 1888 (no. 677), entitled Little Nell and her Grandfather in the Old Curiosity Shop, was sold at Christie's London, 2 November 1984, lot 96, for 6,500.