John Morgan, RBA, (British, 1823-1886)

The Sewing Class

The Sewing Class
oil on canvas
95 x 143.8cm (37 3/8 x 56 5/8in).

Provenance
Anon. sale, Christie's, London, 20 October 1998, lot 140.
Private collection, UK.

The present lot is a tender portrayal of Victorian childhood, typical of John Morgan's oeuvre. Morgan, like many of his contemporary genre painters, often used a schoolroom as a setting, to portray children with affection, while also engendering a message of virtue. With an increasing focus on public education - Forster's Education Act of 1870 decreeing that education was a public service - and the growing establishment of local school boards leading to compulsory attendance by 1880, the village school in particular, highlighted the Victorian aspiration to educate even the poorest children.

Other examples of Morgan's schoolroom scenes include A Village School in Bedfordshire, 1869 (Royal Academy, 1870, no. 370) - which appears to be the same Leighton-Buzzard schoolroom as the present lot - and Interior of a Village School, which is the collection of the Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield.

We are grateful to Terry Parker for his assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.