Public data from the Art Institute of Chicago. Learn more
The Lovers
Inscriptions
Inscribed lower right: W.P. Frith 1855
Exhibition history
London, Royal Academy of Arts, 1855, no. 126. London, The Maas Gallery, Victorian Pictures, 4 June-18 July, 1997, no. 53. Sydney, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Pre-Raphaelites and Olympians: Selected Works of Victorian Art from the John and Julie Schaeffer and the Art Gallery of New South Wales Collections, 2001, catalogue by Richard Beresford, p. 11. Adelaide, Art Gallery of South Australia, Love and Death in the Age of Queen Victoria, 2001, catalogue by Angus Trumble, p. 112. The Art Institute of Chicago, Building a Collection: New Acquisitions and Promised Gifts of British Art, May 1–June 20, 2004, no. 21.
Publications
Review of Royal Academy exhibition, The Art Journal (1855), p. 172. Review of Royal Academy exhibition, The Athenaeum, no. 1437 (May 12, 1855), p. 558. William Powell Frith, My Autobiography and Reminiscences, London, 1887/1888, pp. 263-264. David Layne Montgomery, "William Powell Frith (1819-1909). A Reevaluation of his artistic career", PhD. dissertation, University of Missouri, 1997, pp. 115-116, 657.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- William Powell Frith (English, 1819–1909)
- Date
- 1855
- Medium
- Oil on board
- Dimensions
- 38 × 31 cm (14 11/16 × 12 in.); Framed: 60.1 × 54 × 5.8 cm (23 5/8 × 21 1/4 × 2 1/4 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- oil on board
- Style
- nineteenth century
- Place
- England
- Department
- Painting and Sculpture of Europe
- Credit line
- Purchased with funds provided by Irving Lauf and Irene McNear, Mrs. P. Kelley Armour through The Old Masters Society, Mr. and Mrs. Donald Patterson; through prior acquisition of Mrs. Dellora A. Norris
- Accession no.
- 2003.47
Provenance
Commissioned from the artist by Alfred Brooks; his estate sale Christie's, London, May 17, 1879, lot 77 to William Vokins [according to annotated copy of sale catalogue at the Clark Art Institute, Williamstown]. English private collection; sold Sotheby's, London, March 12, 1997, lot 75, bought by Agnew's and the Maas Gallery, London; sold to John Schaeffer, Sydney, Australia, 1998 [according to Martha Wolff's email correspondence with Gabriel Naughton, Agnew's, March 26, 2003]; sold to the Art Institute through Nevill Keating Pictures Ltd., London, 2003.
More by William Powell Frith in museum collections
Data retrieved from the Art Institute of Chicago on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Open-access museum record · AT-00001641
Powered by Art Trackers