Pasted on the back is a cutting from The Court Journal, 16 May 1868, which reads as follows: 'Mr George Smith has had the honour of submitting to Her Majesty's inspection, at Windsor Castle, his picture of "The Raffle".' Presumably this means that the picture is either a sketch for this work or (more likely) a reduced replica by the artist. The Queen does not seem to have bought the picture submitted to her since no work of this title is in the Royal Collection, although this does contain a Study of a Man's Head by Smith, probably acquired by Prince Albert in 1852.

A pupil of C.W. Cope, Smith specialised in genre scenes in the Wilkie/Webster tradition. He was fond of gambling subjects, A Game of Speculation (R.A. 1869; art market 1986) being another example, similar to our picture in conception. Christie's sold his masterpiece, The Rightful Heir (R.A. 1874) on 2 February 1979, lot 184, and small versions of this and a companion-piece, The Coming of Age, on 3 February 1978, lot 128.

We are grateful to Caroline Crichton-Stuart for her help in preparing this catalogue entry.