拍品专文
Atkinson is one of those Victorian artists whose claim to fame rests almost entirely on one work, in his case the present picture. His career is extremely obscure, even his Christian names being unknown. He exhibited nine pictures at the Royal Academy between 1849 and 1862, never showing more than one work a year, and also appeared at the British Institution (five pictures 1852-67) and Suffolk Street (five pictures 1865-70). Most of his works were modern genre scenes, but he occasionally ventured into literary themes (Burns, B.I. 1852; Dickens, R.A. 1856), and he attempted at least two history pieces: A Queen of England in the "dark ages" (R.A. 1852) and Sir Thomas More leaving home for the last time (R.A. 1859). He seems to have lived nearly all his adult life in north London. In 1849 he was at 2 Little Camden Street (probably in Camden Town), and from 1851 to 1855 at 47 Alfred Street, Islington. Then, after a brief sojourn at 220 Strand (1856-7), we find him at 3 Pembroke Cottages, Islington (1859), 39 Richmond Road, Islington (1862-6) and 23 Thornhill Crescent, Barnsbury (1867-70). He may also have had some connection with Jersey since his last exhibited picture, shown at Suffolk Street in 1870, was entitled A Jersey Interior.
Several works by Atkinson are known today. The First Metropolitan Drinking Fountain, dated 1859-60 and measuring, with frame, 66 x 55in., is in the Geffrye Museum, as is a related sketch (20 x 16in.), acquired from Christopher Wood (exh. People and Rooms, 1987). Two more genre scenes - Cherry Picking, 1858-9, and Gleaners Crossing a Brook, 1856-61, both circular - have appeared on the market in recent years, and a small (19½ x 15½in.) version of The Upset Flower Cart, differing from the present picture in a number of details, was sold in these Rooms on 16 March 1973, lot 189.
Our picture, however, is by far Atkinson's most celebrated work, and justifiably so on account of its scale, conception and quality. The subject is easily read. An urchin, pushing the barrow of a flower vendor, has hit one of the wheels against a brick on the road, sending her stock cascading to the ground and breaking the flower-pots in which her geraniums were growing. Close to tears, she is comforted by a working-class girl in a striped dress and sun-hat, while behind her stand a well-to-do and smartly dressed family - father, mother, and small girl - who have stopped to make a purchase. The child offers money, and her father (possibly a self portrait?) holds an open purse. In the distance are two more street urchins, one looking with glee at the mishap, the other calling his friends to come and join in the fun. It is clearly a hot summer day, and the scene is set in the Caledonian Road, the name being inscribed on the garden wall of the fine Georgian mansion in the background.
The picture does not appear to be dated, nor is it listed among the artist's exhibited works. William Gaunt (loc. cit.), dates it c.1858, but it may well be a few years later. The costume of the fashionably dressed little girl suggests the early 1860s (when dresses of this type appear in the work of Whistler and Charles Keene); and although Atkinson could no doubt have hit upon the venue at any period in his career, he seems most likely to have chosen it during the years 1859-66, when he was living first at 3 Pembroke Cottages and then at 39 Richmond Road, both of which were situated off the Caledonian Road. A little further research might identify the spot represented. That Atkinson had a strong sense of location is suggested by the other main work by which he is known today, The First Metropolitan Drinking Fountain in the Geffrye Museum. The scene here is set in Giltspur Street, near St Bartholomew's Hospital, where the fountain still exists.
The little we know of Atkinson's career suggests that his work became progressively more Pre-Raphaelite in style, and certainly The Upset Flower Cart betrays the influence of the movement in its precission of light, detail and psychology. It is tempting, in fact, to relate it to a particular Pre-Raphaelite painting, Ford Madox Brown's Work (Manchester City Art Gallery). This too is a London street scene on a hot summer day (July). It has an actual location in north London (Heath Street, Hampstead), and one of its principal themes is the contrast between rich and poor. A barrow, a flower-seller and street urchins all appear, although not so prominently as they do in Atkinson's picture; and in the background Brown even included 'the episode of (a) policeman who has caught an orange-girl in the heinous offence of resting her basket on a post, and who himself administers justice in the shape of a push that sends her fruit all over the road' (Ford M. Hueffer, Ford Madox Brown, 1896, p.194). Begun in 1852 and completed ten years later, Work was exhibited in 1865 as the centrepiece of Brown's one-man exhibition in Piccadilly. If Atkinson saw it there for the first time, this would still correspond quite well with the other evidence we have for dating the picture. However, it is worth considering the intriguing possibility that Atkinson, although he makes no appearance in Brown's diary (published 1981), had some acquaintance with him prior to 1865. For Brown too lived in north London, settling in Kentish Town in October 1855 and remaining there until 1865, when increased affluence resulting from his exhibition enabled him to move to Bloomsbury.
The picture belonged to Evelyn Waugh, who collected Victorian paintings at a time when they were still out of fashion, whether from taste of as part of his carefully cultivated image as an arch-reactionary. Another picture with this provenance, by Holman Hunt and Arthur Hughes, was offered in these Rooms on 25 October 1991, lot 52.
Several works by Atkinson are known today. The First Metropolitan Drinking Fountain, dated 1859-60 and measuring, with frame, 66 x 55in., is in the Geffrye Museum, as is a related sketch (20 x 16in.), acquired from Christopher Wood (exh. People and Rooms, 1987). Two more genre scenes - Cherry Picking, 1858-9, and Gleaners Crossing a Brook, 1856-61, both circular - have appeared on the market in recent years, and a small (19½ x 15½in.) version of The Upset Flower Cart, differing from the present picture in a number of details, was sold in these Rooms on 16 March 1973, lot 189.
Our picture, however, is by far Atkinson's most celebrated work, and justifiably so on account of its scale, conception and quality. The subject is easily read. An urchin, pushing the barrow of a flower vendor, has hit one of the wheels against a brick on the road, sending her stock cascading to the ground and breaking the flower-pots in which her geraniums were growing. Close to tears, she is comforted by a working-class girl in a striped dress and sun-hat, while behind her stand a well-to-do and smartly dressed family - father, mother, and small girl - who have stopped to make a purchase. The child offers money, and her father (possibly a self portrait?) holds an open purse. In the distance are two more street urchins, one looking with glee at the mishap, the other calling his friends to come and join in the fun. It is clearly a hot summer day, and the scene is set in the Caledonian Road, the name being inscribed on the garden wall of the fine Georgian mansion in the background.
The picture does not appear to be dated, nor is it listed among the artist's exhibited works. William Gaunt (loc. cit.), dates it c.1858, but it may well be a few years later. The costume of the fashionably dressed little girl suggests the early 1860s (when dresses of this type appear in the work of Whistler and Charles Keene); and although Atkinson could no doubt have hit upon the venue at any period in his career, he seems most likely to have chosen it during the years 1859-66, when he was living first at 3 Pembroke Cottages and then at 39 Richmond Road, both of which were situated off the Caledonian Road. A little further research might identify the spot represented. That Atkinson had a strong sense of location is suggested by the other main work by which he is known today, The First Metropolitan Drinking Fountain in the Geffrye Museum. The scene here is set in Giltspur Street, near St Bartholomew's Hospital, where the fountain still exists.
The little we know of Atkinson's career suggests that his work became progressively more Pre-Raphaelite in style, and certainly The Upset Flower Cart betrays the influence of the movement in its precission of light, detail and psychology. It is tempting, in fact, to relate it to a particular Pre-Raphaelite painting, Ford Madox Brown's Work (Manchester City Art Gallery). This too is a London street scene on a hot summer day (July). It has an actual location in north London (Heath Street, Hampstead), and one of its principal themes is the contrast between rich and poor. A barrow, a flower-seller and street urchins all appear, although not so prominently as they do in Atkinson's picture; and in the background Brown even included 'the episode of (a) policeman who has caught an orange-girl in the heinous offence of resting her basket on a post, and who himself administers justice in the shape of a push that sends her fruit all over the road' (Ford M. Hueffer, Ford Madox Brown, 1896, p.194). Begun in 1852 and completed ten years later, Work was exhibited in 1865 as the centrepiece of Brown's one-man exhibition in Piccadilly. If Atkinson saw it there for the first time, this would still correspond quite well with the other evidence we have for dating the picture. However, it is worth considering the intriguing possibility that Atkinson, although he makes no appearance in Brown's diary (published 1981), had some acquaintance with him prior to 1865. For Brown too lived in north London, settling in Kentish Town in October 1855 and remaining there until 1865, when increased affluence resulting from his exhibition enabled him to move to Bloomsbury.
The picture belonged to Evelyn Waugh, who collected Victorian paintings at a time when they were still out of fashion, whether from taste of as part of his carefully cultivated image as an arch-reactionary. Another picture with this provenance, by Holman Hunt and Arthur Hughes, was offered in these Rooms on 25 October 1991, lot 52.