Social realist painter and illustrator Luke Fildes gained a reputation with his magazine illustrations, especially those for The Graphic, depicting the living conditions of the poor. In this scene from Dickens’s final, unfinished novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood, however, he poses the figures in a well-to-do interior. Lightly shading the faces of the young ladies, Rosa Bud and Helena, and their three possible suitors, the artist establishes the romantic tension between them. His fine penwork recalls the intricate detail of earlier Victorian drawing.

From http://www.victorianweb.org/art/illustration/fildes/d55.html: Fildes has seized upon the music party as the ideal vehicle for introducing Dickens's readers to the novel's cast in the visual program. While the Cloisterham choirmaster, John Jasper, plays the piano, the roomfull of auditors looks suitably attentive: Neville Landless leans against the piano (left), Edwin Drood (right) nervously plays with Miss Twinkleton's fan, and Rev. Crisparkle is seated (right), the young ladies present being Helena Landless and Rosa Bud, as described in the central paragraph on page 55: "Mr. Jasper was seated at the piano . . . Miss Twinkleton's fan. . . ." Fildes avoids the stiff effect of a group study by placing the characters in different attitudes and on different planes, and providing unity by having all the characters focus on the back of the pianist's head, flanked by the faces of the young ladies (centre, the soloist, Rosa Bud or "Miss Rosebud" being the short blonde, Helena the statuesque brunette with shading indicating her facial colouring). Edwin Drood and Neville Landless (described in text as taking an "admiring station," so as to study Rosa better) seem to be studying one another rather than giving their whole attentions to the music. To give emphasis to the newcomer, Neville Landless, Fildes has placed him in the foreground, against the piano, and Edwin in the background, nervously toying with the fan borrowed from the elderly teacher seated beside him. He thus enables us to study Neville in his reverie, allowing us to study his developing interest in Rosa, and to motivate his later accusing Edwin of neglecting her. The background is slightly sketched in, thereby forcing our attention away from the furnishings and bric-a-brac of the drawing-room and toward the figures, particularly those who are closest to us. The picture thus establishes a romantic triangle between the young men and Miss Bud which will be further complicated by John Jasper's interest in the young woman who is his nephew's fiancee and who has excited Neville's interest, too.

Walker Galleries (London); purchased there by Sir Robert Witt, London (1872-1952), L.2228b (£3); Witt Bequest 1952

Special Display - Characters and Caricatures, Late Victorian Illustration, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 10/02/2011-08/06/2011

Blunt, Anthony, Hand-list of the drawings in the Witt Collection, London, 1956
p. 19

Watermark: Watermark: none.

Inscription: Recto: lower left, black ink, signed: “S.L.Fildes”. Verso: lower right corner, graphite: “6”.

Collector's mark: Verso: lower left corner, stamped in black: Sir Robert Witt (L.2228b).