The Railway Station
William Powell Frith
1862
Physical Description
Medium: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 46 x 101 in.
Signature: W.P. Frith
Date on Image: 1862
Note: "W.P. Frith fecͭ 1862" is inscribed on the picture.
Production Description
Production Date: 1862
Exhibition History: Flatow's Haymarket Gallery, April to September of 1862; travelled Britain and Northern Ireland on
tour in the 1860's; London International Exhibition, 1872 (no.73); Philadelphia, 1876
(no.48); Paris, Exposition Universelle, 1878 (no.78); R.A. Winter Exhibition, 1911 (no.37);
Wembly,
British Empire, 1924 (W.21); R.A. Winter Exhibition, 1934 (no.626);
Moscow and Leningrad,
British painting 1700-1960, 1960 (no.79); Victoria and Albert Museum,
The Growth of London A.D. 63-1964, 1964 (G.24);
Guildhall Art Gallery,
London and the Greater Painters, 1971 (no.32); South
London Art Gallery,
Mid Victorian Art Draughtsmen and Dreamers, 1971
(no.82); Arts Council,
Great Victorian Pictures, 1978 (no.15); Munich,
Two Hundred Years of English Painting 1680-1880, 1979-80 (no.372); Agnew's,
1981 (no.12)
Original Cost: Flatow paid £4,500 for the painting and copyright, plus £750 for
exclusive exhibition rights
Provenance
Current Location: Egham, University of London, Royal Holloway Collection
Archival History: commissioned by dealer Louis Victor Flatow; Henry Graves and Co. purchased the
work and copyright from Flatow in 1863 for £16,300; purchased from Graves by Thomas Holloway on April 16, 1883 for £2000.
Electronic Archive Edition: 1
File Name:
op132.rap.xml
Scholarly Commentary
Introduction
This tremendously popular picture was widely exhibited. Engravings by Francis Holl and others flooded the print market and made the picture extraordinarily lucrative for the artists, dealers, publishers and print-sellers involved in its creation and marketing.
Bibliography