Summary
Mulready exhibited this painting in its first state at the Royal Academy in 1809, with the title Returning from the Ale-House. It is an early example of the rustic narrative scenes, full of anecdotal detail, which later brought Mulready success. In the foreground a group of village children collect the coins distributed drunkenly by two ruddy-cheeked men staggering home from the ale-house, witnessed with disapproval by two dour schoolmasters in the building nearby. The background is a serene, bucolic landscape in the evening sun. The subject and style of the painting refer both to the early genre scenes of Mulready’s contemporary David Wilkie (1785–1841) and to those of Dutch seventeenth-century painters, in particular Adriaen Van Ostade (1610–85)… (read more)
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