- Artist
- Benjamin Robert Haydon 1786–1846
- Medium
- Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions
- Support: 1505 × 1851 mm
frame: 2010 × 2270 × 165 mm - Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Bequeathed by George Darling 1862
- Reference
- N00682
Display caption
Benjamin Haydon thought of calling this painting ‘Life’, hoping to capture a cross-section of London. A hearse nearly collides with a marriage coach and the newly-weds contrast with the violent couple in the popular puppet show, Punch and Judy. Haydon made this work five years before the abolition of Slavery in the British Empire. He deliberately placed the upright Black coachman with the caricatured performance of the soot-blackened chimney sweep close together, so viewers would connect the two figures. Although he later expressed regret at his beliefs, at the time Haydon held racist ideas about racial hierarchies.
Gallery label, May 2023
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