Friday, January 22, 2010

Cinderella at the V&A


If you ever happen to be visiting the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, aka the V&A, look in their permanent collection for this painting "Cinderella and the Slipper" by Richard Redgrave (1804-1888).

I discovered the painting there during one of my visits in 2006. My sister was living in London at the time, so I was privileged to stay with her for a few weeks. I fell in love with the V&A and visited it more than once. However, I didn't discover this painting until the very end of my final visit, so I didn't get to see much of it.

From The New International Encyclopaedia, Volume 19 by Herbert Treadwell Wade:

REDGRAVE, Richard (1804-88). An English genre and landscape painter and author, born in London. He was admitted to the schools of the Royal Academy in 1826 and first achieved success in 1844 with the "Seamstress." In 1851 he was made Royal Academician. He was head master of the government school of design in 1848 and art superintendent in 1852. In 1857 he was made inspector general of art schools at South Kensington and surveyor of crown pictures, holding the latter position until 1880. Ten of his paintings are in the South Kensington Museum, including "Gulliver on the Farmer's Table" (1837), "Ophelia" and "Cinderella." Redgrave is author of An Elementary Manual of Colors (1863). His brother Samuel (1802-76) studied architecture at the Royal Academy in 1833, but is best known as a manager of a number of important art exhibitions and especially as an author on art topics. He published A Century of Painters of the English School (1866), with his brother Richard, and A Dictionary of Artists of the British School (1874). These, like the Memoir made from the Diary of Richard Redgrave by F. M. Redgrave (London, 1891), are valuable and interesting.

While I had photos of the painting, none were very good thanks to lighting and camera angle. This image is courtesy of Bridgeman Art Gallery.

In conclusion, this is another unexpected fairy tale sighting in a museum.

1 comment:

  1. Oh yes, the V&A is lovely. But this post has inspired me to have a closer look at the art we have in our local art gallery - they have a lot of pre raphaelite painting.
    http://www.bmagic.org.uk/objects/1927P1616/images/137693 is intriguing - it makes me want to know more about what's in the book!

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.