拍品專文
A smaller version of an oil of 1858, which along with three others from a series executed between 1858 and 1864, The Christening, The Sick Room and Taking Leave, belong to the Thomas Coram Foundation, London. (see Christopher Wood, Victorian Panorama, Paintings of Victorian Life, 1976, p. 73, illustrated).
Foundlings, or orphans, were a commonplace part of Victorian society, when a mother could rarely survive the social stigma of raising an illegitimate child. This painting depicts a child being returned to its mother, now in more fortunate circumstances, in the Secretary's room of the Thomas Coram Foundling Hospital. The original receipt for the child's adoption lies on the floor. The paintings on the wall include Hogarth's March to Finchley, portraits of Shakespeare and Ben Marshal, Salome after Guido Reni and Elijah raising the Son of the Widow of Zarephath attributed to Lanfranco. The scene would have been highly familiar to Emma Brownlow, as her father John, himself a foundling, was Secretary of the Hospital between 1849 and 1872, and is here depicted behind the desk.
The series ranks amongst Elizabeth Brownlow's finest work. She exhibited further scenes of domestic genre at the Royal Academy between 1852 and 1867.
We are grateful to Rhian Harris, Curator of the Thomas Coram Foundation, for her help in preparing this catalogue entry.
Foundlings, or orphans, were a commonplace part of Victorian society, when a mother could rarely survive the social stigma of raising an illegitimate child. This painting depicts a child being returned to its mother, now in more fortunate circumstances, in the Secretary's room of the Thomas Coram Foundling Hospital. The original receipt for the child's adoption lies on the floor. The paintings on the wall include Hogarth's March to Finchley, portraits of Shakespeare and Ben Marshal, Salome after Guido Reni and Elijah raising the Son of the Widow of Zarephath attributed to Lanfranco. The scene would have been highly familiar to Emma Brownlow, as her father John, himself a foundling, was Secretary of the Hospital between 1849 and 1872, and is here depicted behind the desk.
The series ranks amongst Elizabeth Brownlow's finest work. She exhibited further scenes of domestic genre at the Royal Academy between 1852 and 1867.
We are grateful to Rhian Harris, Curator of the Thomas Coram Foundation, for her help in preparing this catalogue entry.