by-nc

Child of the period

Maker

(artist)
1834-1896

Title

Child of the period

Date of Production

1885

Medium

graphite, pen and brown ink with graphite framing lines on wove paper

Dimensions

Height: 14 cm
Width: 22.8 cm

Accession Number

D.1952.RW.685

Mode of Acquisition

Robert Clermont Witt, bequest, 1952

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Work in the public domain

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords








Label Text

One of the most prominent contributors to Punch, du Maurier was the magazine’s chief observer of fashion and high life. His style was highly literary, and relied on the interplay between image and text for its humour. Here the vertical lines of a receding fence draw the viewer’s attention to a distant train. The precocious and elegantly dressed child in the foreground is represented as being more sophisticated than her grandmother.

Provenance

Spencer (London); purchased there by Sir Robert Witt, London (1872-1952), n.d.; Witt Bequest 1952

Exhibition History

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

Some British Drawings on loan to the National Gallery of Canada from the Collection of Sir Robert Witt, American Federation of the Arts, Washington, D.C. and nine cities in the USA, 1951

Some British Drawings on loan to the National Gallery of Canada from the Collection of Sir Robert Witt, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 1949 - 1950 ...More

Some British Drawings from the Collection of Sir Robert Witt, Arts Council of Great Britain, 1948 ...Less

Literature

Blunt, Anthony, Hand-list of the drawings in the Witt Collection, London, 1956
p. 34

Some British Drawings on loan to the National Gallery of Canada from the Collection of Sir Robert Witt, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 1949-50
no. 39

Some British Drawings from the Collection of Sir Robert Witt, Arts Council of Great Britain, 1948
no. 55

Inscriptions

Watermark: Watermark: none.

Inscription: Separate sheet, glued to current mount: brown ink, captioned, dated and signed: "The child of the Period. / Grandmamma: "Hark, Dorothy! do you hear the Puff. Puff!" / Dorothy: "The Locomotive, I suppose you mean, Grandmamma!" / "Punch" / April 11. 1885 / George du Maurier". Former backing sheet (removed), now in object file: graphite: "Cat. 362"; printed in black: "463". Mount (removed, now cut down and in object file): graphite: "Exhib. Arts Council 1948/9 / Exhib. by British Council in Canada 1949/50 / Exhib. by American Federation of Arts, Washington, in 9 cities in the U.S.A. 1951".

Collector's mark: none.

Label: Former backing sheet (removed), now in object file: printed in black: "463".

Stamp: Former backing sheet (removed), now in object file: red ink: "U. S. A. / EXIT / G Y W".

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