Lot Essay
The subject of this painting is taken from Claude Duval, Frith's foremost work of 1859. In his autobiography Frith relates the story of Duval, a handsome highwayman, who having robbed Lady Aurora Sydney of four hundred pounds promised to restore some of that sum if she danced a coranto with him beside her carriage. Frith took the subject from Macaulay's History of England, and recorded that if 'I could succeed in retaining the beauty of the lady, combined with the terror that she would feel, I should perform a feat well worthy of achievement'. The oil was bought by Flatou, a Belgian picture dealer, for £1,700, who also purchased this picture.