Lot Essay
The first scene of Frith's Hogarthian narrative presents the Spider drawing innocent members of the public into his fraudulent schemes. The series goes on to show the Spider entertaining at home. The third depicts an honest family destroyed by their father's investment in one of the Spider's schemes. Scenes four and five finally present the Spider's fall from grace as he is tried in court and sent to Millbank Penitentiary.
The Race for Wealth series hangs in the Baroda Museum in India. They are illustrated in C. Wood William Powell Frith - A Painter and his World, London, 2006, chapter 17, pp. 191-200.
The Race for Wealth series hangs in the Baroda Museum in India. They are illustrated in C. Wood William Powell Frith - A Painter and his World, London, 2006, chapter 17, pp. 191-200.