Lot Essay
Walter Dendy Sadler was amongst the most popular and succesful artists of the late nineteenth century. In a laudatory article in the Art Journal of 1895, F.G Stephens explained the nature of his appeal and mentioned this picture as one of 'a humourous sequence of subjects, which chiefly deal with the follies and weaknesses of men and women, [which do] so in a thoroughly good-natured way to which even those men and women themselves can hardly object; while some of their number might be expected to be grateful to the genial satirist who, not unkindly, has held before them that mirror of humour in which they may 'see themselves as others see them''. Many of these scenes take place in Regency dining rooms, such as the one here depicted, which according to Stephens exuded 'an extraordinary richness of character, ... opulent in bric à brac of furniture, accesories and what not'.
This picture was extremely well received when exhibited; The Times thought it 'perhaps the best thing [Dendy Sadler] has done'. The Athenaeum described it at length. 'A Meeting of Creditors (588) may take its place in the long list of Mr Sadler's achievements ... It is an interior ..., well painted, searchingly studied, and suitable to the subject which is the behaviour of a disconcerted spendthrift, when, with his attorney at his side, he is brought to bay and discovers the disagreeableness of debt. His gaudy dressing gown is no more yellow than his face of distress, while he vainly brazens it out with a sort of nonchalance which is humourous enough and very fresh as a point of design. Mr Sadler has introduced some capital types of creditors. The bald headed farmer, for instance, in a buff smock frock, who, in a dull and sorrowful way, broods over his misfortunes and hesitates to be hard; the lean and pitiless attorney, too, in a snuff-brown coat, who a schedule of debts and assets in his hand, sharply cross-examines the bothered debtor; and the sleek old fellow, bill case in hand, who has, perhaps, cause for not despairing of the future, though of the present he takes no very happy view, are excellent specimens of satiric humour. In the minor figures the same direct and obvious sort of satire is to be found.'
Sadler was the son of a solicitor who settled in Dorking. He was educated nearby at Horsham, and thereafter at Heatherley's Art School in London. His talent was such that W. Simmler, a native of Dusseldorf, offered to teach him in Germany for free. Sadler made his debut at the Dudley Gallery in 1872 at the age of eighteen and continued to exhibit there and at the Society of British Artists, the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours, and the Grosvenor Gallery for many years. Although a frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy he never became an Academican. His works were however much reproduced through engravings.
This picture was extremely well received when exhibited; The Times thought it 'perhaps the best thing [Dendy Sadler] has done'. The Athenaeum described it at length. 'A Meeting of Creditors (588) may take its place in the long list of Mr Sadler's achievements ... It is an interior ..., well painted, searchingly studied, and suitable to the subject which is the behaviour of a disconcerted spendthrift, when, with his attorney at his side, he is brought to bay and discovers the disagreeableness of debt. His gaudy dressing gown is no more yellow than his face of distress, while he vainly brazens it out with a sort of nonchalance which is humourous enough and very fresh as a point of design. Mr Sadler has introduced some capital types of creditors. The bald headed farmer, for instance, in a buff smock frock, who, in a dull and sorrowful way, broods over his misfortunes and hesitates to be hard; the lean and pitiless attorney, too, in a snuff-brown coat, who a schedule of debts and assets in his hand, sharply cross-examines the bothered debtor; and the sleek old fellow, bill case in hand, who has, perhaps, cause for not despairing of the future, though of the present he takes no very happy view, are excellent specimens of satiric humour. In the minor figures the same direct and obvious sort of satire is to be found.'
Sadler was the son of a solicitor who settled in Dorking. He was educated nearby at Horsham, and thereafter at Heatherley's Art School in London. His talent was such that W. Simmler, a native of Dusseldorf, offered to teach him in Germany for free. Sadler made his debut at the Dudley Gallery in 1872 at the age of eighteen and continued to exhibit there and at the Society of British Artists, the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours, and the Grosvenor Gallery for many years. Although a frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy he never became an Academican. His works were however much reproduced through engravings.