Country folk lured by the promise of material goods and wealth, fine clothes and smart carriages, who end up working in coal mines and struggling to stave off poverty.
Krohg
Keeping the aspidistra flying in the homes of the respectable middle classes, in paintings from Carl Larsson to Paul Signac and Harriet Backer.
From tired seamstress to milliner, into the fashion house of Paquin, and onto the streets alongside the affluent of Paris at the turn of the century.
The urban poor, painted by Raffaëlli, George Breitner, Fernand Pelez, Christian Krohg, Geoffroy, Henningsen in cities across Europe.
Paintings from cities like London, Paris and Oslo, by Ford Madox Brown, Jean-Louis Forain, Félicien Rops, Christian Krohg, and others.
Laundresses who collect clothes and linen from homes, launder and press them, and return them for a pittance. Seamstresses working long hours with an uncertain future.
By the end of the 19th century, 80% of those in Europe lived in towns and cities, drawn there by the promise of material riches that were not available to them in the country. This new series explores what they faced.
Fourteen major painters whose anniversaries I’ll celebrate or commemorate during this New Year, from George Bellows to Jacques-Louis David.
Soldiers on the front in the First World War, a young woman slaving as a seamstress, Dickens’ miserly Scrooge, and Polish ‘exiles’ in Siberia – those we should be thinking of this Christmas.
Portraits in pastel by Baes and Laikmaa, and oils from Lovis Corinth, Christian Krohg, Emily Carr, Pierre Bonnard and Paul Sérusier.
The Eclectic Light Company 