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Lot Essay
The Art Journal lavished the highest praise on this picture:
'Like Mr Fitzgerald, Mr J Burr possesses humour as well as great manipulative dexterity. In this respect he often reminds us of Sir David Wilkie; and we make bold to say that Domestic Troubles (408) as set forth by Mr Burr, is as perfectly rounded and complete an episode as ever came from the easel of his great countryman. ... Domestic troubles, when examined, resolve themselves very often into matters as simple as the broken-winded bellows we see before us. The saliency of the incident consists in the earnestness of the old man being repeated in the countenance and attitude of the boy, as they try to discover the seat and origin of the asthma which affects the health, and consequently the efficiency, of their domestic Boreas, the bellows'.
Academy Notes presents a slightly different explanation: 'Very clever interior. Old man mending a pair of bellows, child looking on; small boy, the cause of the "trouble", being corrected by his mother'.
'Like Mr Fitzgerald, Mr J Burr possesses humour as well as great manipulative dexterity. In this respect he often reminds us of Sir David Wilkie; and we make bold to say that Domestic Troubles (408) as set forth by Mr Burr, is as perfectly rounded and complete an episode as ever came from the easel of his great countryman. ... Domestic troubles, when examined, resolve themselves very often into matters as simple as the broken-winded bellows we see before us. The saliency of the incident consists in the earnestness of the old man being repeated in the countenance and attitude of the boy, as they try to discover the seat and origin of the asthma which affects the health, and consequently the efficiency, of their domestic Boreas, the bellows'.
Academy Notes presents a slightly different explanation: 'Very clever interior. Old man mending a pair of bellows, child looking on; small boy, the cause of the "trouble", being corrected by his mother'.