The Orphans, from "Illustrated London News"

Engraver William Luson Thomas British
 After Kate Swift British

Not on view

A young Dutch boy, whose nationality is indicated by wooden clogs, comforts a younger sister near a grave above a coastal village. William Luson Thomas’s wood engraving appeared in the "Illustrated London News" in 1867, based on a drawing or painting that Kate Swift showed at the Society of Female Artists that year—the society had been founded in 1857 to bolster the prospects of women artists who could exhibit at the Royal Academy but were not admitted to membership, or allowed to study at the Academy Schools (Swift exhibited at the Society 1857-1901 and at the Academy 1861-80). Primarily a watercolorist, Swift focused on genre subjects. In 1869 she married the Dutch artist Christoffel Bisshop and moved to Scheveningen in the Netherlands, but continued to exhibit in London.

The Orphans, from "Illustrated London News", William Luson Thomas (British, London 1830–1900 Chertsey, Surrey), Wood engraving

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