
Not on display
- Artist
- Frederick Walker 1840–1875
- Medium
- Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions
- Support: 832 × 1264 mm
frame: 1027 × 1567 × 120 mm - Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Purchased 1886
- Reference
- N01209
Display caption
Frederick Walker painted this after seeing gypsies on Clapham Common, south London. He tried to use the gypsies as models but found that they had moved on. Instead his sister Polly posed for the standing woman. The background landscape was painted in the open air at Beddington, near Croydon.Walker originally made The Vagrants as an illustration in the magazine Once a Week. He worked it up into an oil painting to show at the Royal Academy. It failed to find a buyer, but it had a great influence on younger artists who specialised in social-realist subjects.
Gallery label, July 2007
Does this text contain inaccurate information or language that you feel we should improve or change? We would like to hear from you.
Explore
- nature(45,208)
- natural phenomena(3,188)
-
- smoke(290)
- water: inland(11,120)
-
- pool(375)
- clothing and personal items(5,884)
-
- shawl(90)
- campfire(34)
- actions: postures and motions(9,098)
-
- crouching(275)
- woman(9,055)
- group(4,250)
- family(4,136)
-
- family(1,083)
- mother and child(398)
- homelessness(18)
- cart(861)
You might like
-
John Robertson Reid Toil and Pleasure
1879 -
Abraham Solomon Not Guilty (The Acquittal)
exhibited 1857 -
Frederick Walker The Harbour of Refuge
1872 -
William Maw Egley Omnibus Life in London
1859 -
John Robertson Reid A Country Cricket Match
1878 -
Abraham Solomon Waiting for the Verdict
1857 -
Frederick Walker Philip in Church, engraved by Swain
published 1862 -
Richard Redgrave The Emigrant’s Last Sight of Home
1858 -
Frank Holl Hushed
1877 -
Frederick Walker Philip in Church
c.1862 -
Frederick Walker Refreshment
exhibited 1864 -
Frederick Walker The Old Gate
1874–5 -
James Collinson Home Again
1856 -
Augustus Leopold Egg Past and Present, No. 3
1858 -
Arthur Boyd Houghton Ramsgate Sands
c.1861