- Title:
- Children Playing at Doctors
- Object name(s):
- Oil painting
- Brief description:
- Oil on canvas. The children here are playing while their mother and grandmother are out of the house; the two children in the centre are pounding bread in a mortar and pestle to make tablets, but the child on the right has taken the game a step further by climbing on a chair to open the medicine cupboard, and is pouring a measure of perhaps poisonous liquid into a glass to administer to the 'patient'. Fortunately, the adults are seen returning through the door, otherwise the patient might become a fatality, an outcome suggested in the right corner of the picture by the doll which has fallen out of her carriage. There is a mirror on the wall which reflects the view to the outside world through the left-hand window.
- Collection:
- Victoria and Albert Museum
- Associated concept:
- Children & Childhood
- Associated concept:
- Dolls & Toys
- Associated concept:
- Paintings
- Content - concept:
- childhood
- Content - concept:
- Children
- Content - concept:
- Interiors
- Content - concept:
- Furniture
- Content - concept:
- Paintings
- Content - concept:
- Mirror
- Content - concept:
- Toys
- Content - concept:
- Clothing
- Credit line:
- Bequeathed by Joshua Dixon
- Current reproduction location:
- https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AU9797/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg
- Location type:
- Thumbnail
- Dimension:
- Height
- Dimension measured part:
- estimate
- Dimension measurement unit:
- cm
- Dimension value:
- 44.7
- Dimension:
- Width
- Dimension measured part:
- estimate
- Dimension measurement unit:
- cm
- Dimension value:
- 61
- Dimension:
- Height
- Dimension measured part:
- frame
- Dimension measurement unit:
- cm
- Dimension value:
- 75.5
- Dimension:
- Width
- Dimension measured part:
- frame
- Dimension measurement unit:
- cm
- Dimension value:
- 91.5
- Inscription content:
- 'F D Hardy/1863'
- Inscription interpretation:
- Signed and dated by the artist on toy cart, lower right
- Material:
- oil paint
- Material:
- canvas
- Object history note:
- Bequeathed by Joshua Dixon, 1886. Hardy's long and successful career was principally devoted to painting happily nostalgic episodes in childhood, most often of a domestic and humorous nature. As with so many scenes of everyday life, this work is intended to be 'read' like a written narrative. The children here are playing while their mother and grandmother are out of the house; the two children in the centre are pounding bread in a mortar and pestle to make tablets, but the child on the right has taken the game a step further by climbing on a chair to open the medicine cupboard, and is pouring a measure of perhaps poisonous liquid into a glass to administer to the 'patient'. Fortunately, the adults are seen returning through the door, otherwise the patient might become a fatality, an outcome suggested in the right corner of the picture by the doll which has fallen out of her carriage. Hardy also uses a device much enjoyed by painters and their audience in the middle years of the nineteenth century - the mirror on the wall which reflects the view to the outside world through the left-hand window.
- Object name:
- Oil painting
- Object number:
- 1035-1886
- Object production date:
- 1863
- Date - association:
- Painted
- Date - earliest / single:
- 1863-01-01
- Date - latest:
- 1863-12-31
- Object production person:
- Hardy, Frederick Daniel
- Person's association:
- Painter
- Object production place:
- Great Britain
- Place association:
- Painted
- Physical description:
- Oil on canvas. The children here are playing while their mother and grandmother are out of the house; the two children in the centre are pounding bread in a mortar and pestle to make tablets, but the child on the right has taken the game a step further by climbing on a chair to open the medicine cupboard, and is pouring a measure of perhaps poisonous liquid into a glass to administer to the 'patient'. Fortunately, the adults are seen returning through the door, otherwise the patient might become a fatality, an outcome suggested in the right corner of the picture by the doll which has fallen out of her carriage. There is a mirror on the wall which reflects the view to the outside world through the left-hand window.
- Reproduction number:
- 2006AU9797
- Reproduction number:
- 2017KB7906
- Responsible department/section:
- PDP
- Style:
- British School
- Technique:
- oil painting
- Technique:
- oil on canvas
- Text reason:
- Collections online record
- Text:
- Hardy's long and successful career was principally devoted to painting happily nostalgic episodes in childhood, most often of a domestic and humorous nature. As with so many scenes of everyday life, this work is intended to be 'read' like a written narrative. The children here are playing while their mother and grandmother are out of the house; the two children in the centre are pounding bread in a mortar and pestle to make tablets, but the child on the right has taken the game a step further by climbing on a chair to open the medicine cupboard, and is pouring a measure of perhaps poisonous liquid into a glass to administer to the 'patient'. Fortunately, the adults are seen returning through the door, otherwise the patient might become a fatality, an outcome suggested in the right corner of the picture by the doll which has fallen out of her carriage. Hardy also uses a device much enjoyed by painters and their audience in the middle years of the nineteenth century - the mirror on the wall which reflects the view to the outside world through the left-hand window.
- Text reason:
- Summary description
- User's reference:
- Reference:
- O'Mahony, C., Brunel and the Art of Invention . Bristol: Samsom & Company Ltd., 2006. 64 p. : col. ill. ISBN 1904537502
- User's reference:
- Reference:
- Parkinson, R., Victoria and Albert Museum, Catalogue of British Oil Paintings 1820-1860, London: HMSO, 1990, pp. 118-19
Persistent shareable link for this record: https://museumdata.uk/objects/e5d7a40b-ac23-3dc1-aeb3-65bc17a11bfb
Use licence for this record: CC BY-NC
Attribution for this record: https://museumdata.uk/objects/e5d7a40b-ac23-3dc1-aeb3-65bc17a11bfb, Victoria and Albert Museum, CC BY-NC
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