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Lot Essay
Thomas Ballard's The New Governess belongs to a small but important genre of paintings depicting governesses, milliners and seamstresses. These skilled professions, often adopted by those whose fortunes had taken a turn, combined tireless endeavour with literal or psychological isolation. Richard Redgrave's The Seamstress was seminal, and introduced social realities to a middle-class audience upon its Royal Academy exhibition in 1846. Redgrave had taken his subject from Thomas Hood's poem The Song of the Shirt, first published in Punch in 1843, the very rhythms of which mimicked the insistent motion of the needle and thread.
A number of artists followed in Redgrave's wake and executed pictures of seamstresses, either alone or working in groups. The governess is a more unusual subject. Redgrave was again the precursor; his painting The Poor Teacher (1843; Shipley Art Gallery, Gateshead) underwent several subsequent metamorphoses; the figure of the pensive dark-clad girl almost unchanged whilst her background surroundings incorporated new objects or different pupils.
Ballard, a genre painter who exhibited widely in London, was no doubt familiar with Redgrave's famous conception. His painting possesses its own peculiar pathos however. As we assimilate the narrative particulars of this detailed depiction of a new employee unpacking, the most striking detail is the partially open set of drawers. It introduces a sense of chaos into this humble, sparsely furnished room; a chaos which reflects the girl's internal despair rather than her outward resignation. She holds a small portrait miniature loosely in her hand; presumably the likeness of a distant or perhaps deceased beloved.
A number of artists followed in Redgrave's wake and executed pictures of seamstresses, either alone or working in groups. The governess is a more unusual subject. Redgrave was again the precursor; his painting The Poor Teacher (1843; Shipley Art Gallery, Gateshead) underwent several subsequent metamorphoses; the figure of the pensive dark-clad girl almost unchanged whilst her background surroundings incorporated new objects or different pupils.
Ballard, a genre painter who exhibited widely in London, was no doubt familiar with Redgrave's famous conception. His painting possesses its own peculiar pathos however. As we assimilate the narrative particulars of this detailed depiction of a new employee unpacking, the most striking detail is the partially open set of drawers. It introduces a sense of chaos into this humble, sparsely furnished room; a chaos which reflects the girl's internal despair rather than her outward resignation. She holds a small portrait miniature loosely in her hand; presumably the likeness of a distant or perhaps deceased beloved.