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Lot Essay
Brooks specialized in scenes of 'social realism' designed to prick the conscience of the nation. The narrative can be read through the accumulation of visual clues. A landlord has come with his clerk to make an inventory of the possessions of a poor widow who has fallen behind with her rent. He is considering evicting her and her family. Her husband, a military officer, whose portrait and sword hang above the chimneypiece, has recently been killed in the Crimea. (A black- edged letter of condolence is tucked behind the frame). The widow, dressed in mourning, is trying to support her family through sewing. She has already pawned her late husband's watch: the watchcase stands empty above the grate. There too is medicine for her eldest daughter, whose health has been compromised by the dampness of the garret. Contemporary audiences, accustomed to the novels of Dickens, would have been again reminded how quickly their fortunes could turn and their gentility be lost.
There is reason to hope that in this instance, however, all will be well. The plant in the window-sill has managed to flower. There is a fire in the grate, and the kettle is emitting a comforting hiss of steam. Brooks has appended to his title lines from Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, which originally refered to the infant Perdita's separation from her mother owing to her father's decree, but is here used to articulate the landlord's thoughts, as his gaze is directed to the new-born infant, a posthumous child, sleeping by the fire.
Thomas Brooks was born in Hull, and studied under Henry Perronet Briggs. He exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1843 and 1882, and also showed at the British Institution and Suffolk Street.
There is reason to hope that in this instance, however, all will be well. The plant in the window-sill has managed to flower. There is a fire in the grate, and the kettle is emitting a comforting hiss of steam. Brooks has appended to his title lines from Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, which originally refered to the infant Perdita's separation from her mother owing to her father's decree, but is here used to articulate the landlord's thoughts, as his gaze is directed to the new-born infant, a posthumous child, sleeping by the fire.
Thomas Brooks was born in Hull, and studied under Henry Perronet Briggs. He exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1843 and 1882, and also showed at the British Institution and Suffolk Street.