Beschreibung:

James Hayllar RBA (British 1829-1920) Mabel's Pensioners signed lower right "J Hayllar 1884" oil on canvas h:99 w:150 cm Exhibited: The Royal Academy, London, 1884, No. 804. This scene is thought to have been painted at Castle Priory, Wallingford, Oxfordshire (Hayllar's home on the Thames), with his estate workers, village characters, and possibly one of his nine daughters as Miss Mabel. This little girl appears in several of his other works, and some of the pensioners also feature in other paintings by Hayllar such as "The Picture Gallery at the Hall" and "Musical Honours". Miss Mabel is handing out loaves and also packets of tea to the pensioners. James Hayllar and his four daughters were one of the most artistic families of the Victorian age. Hayllar exhibited at the Royal Academy for over forty years, originally studying at Cary's Art School in London where Millais and Rossetti also studied with Francis Stephen Cary In 1854 Hayllar exhibited a portrait of Ellen Cavell at the Royal Academy entitled Lady Mynzomdie (Mine Some Day), and later married her, and took a studio in Rome for a time. Hayllar loved life in Wallingford and incorporated village life in a charming way into his paintings. Hayllar taught four of his daughters, Jessica, Edith, Mary and Kate, to paint, putting them through a thorough course of drawing, perspective and painting, from ten until four every day. Castle Priory still stands on the Thames, the idyllic inspiration for the Hayllar family, and for James Hayllar himself as one of the best recorders of Victorian family life in paintings in the country. Estimate £12,000-18,000