The Dame's Absence, from "Illustrated London News"
Engraver Harvey Orrin Smith British
After Alfred Rankley British
Not on view
In their teacher's absence, a group of children attending a country dame school grow restless and seem ready to get into mischief. One takes off her smock, another eats an apple, others look at a jug and mug at right. Rankley had trained at the schools of the Royal Academy and sent literary, poetic and dramatic subjects there for exhibition from 1841. By the 1850s he was moving towards genre and contemporary narrative with titles such as "The Sunday School" (1850), "The Village School" (1856). The present image belongs to the latter group, and the related painting was shown at the Royal Academy in 1857, then engraved by Harvey Orrin Smith for the "Illustrated London News." Founded in 1842 as the world’s first weekly news magazine, this periodical regularly published examples of contemporary art and exhibition reviews.
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