Vanity - William Powell Frith (1819 - 1909)

19th century gilt frame.

This delightful scene features a rosy-cheeked young victorian girl brushing her hair. The girl gazes at her own reflection as her hat and coat, perhaps only just taken off, hang by her side and a dozing tabby cat lies at her feet. Undeniably, the work has a whimsical mood as one automatically draws comparison between with the young girl featured here and Lewis Carroll's curious heroine Alice. While both Frith's life and his art held strong affinities with the literature of the day, it is important to note that the novel 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' was in fact not published until 1865, almost fifteen years after this painting was dated.

It is probable that this girl is Frith's youngest daughter, Fanny. Indeed, Fanny, along with two of his other daughters, Louisa and Alice, were often the subjects of Frith's work and portraits of the girls were exhibited in 1870 and 1873. Frith also often employed the children of his friends and fellow artists as models for the children in his paintings.