The First Time of 'Asking', from "Illustrated London News"
Engraver William Luson Thomas British
After William Hemsley British
Not on view
This wood engraving reproduces a work by Hemsley, a London genre painter and son of an architect who initially had followed his father’s profession, painting in his spare time. Known for genre subjects, he exhibited at the Royal Academy, British Institution and Suffolk Street, eventually becoming vice president at the latter. The image relates to a painting made near the end of Hemsley's career and shows a young couple at the start of their courtship, seated together in a high backed pew in a church, a sanctioned public setting which also affords some privacy. Having dropped her glove, the young woman waits for her companion to notice and retrieve it. The print was engraved by William Luson Thomas, a leading wood engraver of the period, and likely published as part of the "Illustrated London News" reportage on current art exhibitions.
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