disintegrating because of the mother's adultery. The two outer scenes depict the separated mother and children a few years later, now living in poverty. The painting's use of flashback – the central scene is occurring in the past – has been seen as a precursor of cinema. Egg was also an active organiser of exhibitions, being admired by fellow-artists for his dedication and fair mindedness. He was one of the organisers of the Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition in 1857. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1860. Always in poor health, Egg spent his later years in the warmer climate of continental Europe, where he painted Travelling Companions, an ambiguous image of two near-identical young women that has sometimes been interpreted as an attempt to represent two sides of the same person. A member of the circle of friends that included Dickens and Wilkie Collins, Egg features in their surviving correspondence. He participated, as actor and costume designer, in their amateur theatricals, which were often conducted for charitable purposes as noted above. In January 1857 he took a part in Collins's play The Frozen Deep, which starred Dickens and was performed at his home, Tavistock House (Egg played John Want, the ship's cook.) The production was also acted before Queen Victoria and then performed for charity. Dickens described Egg as a "dear gentle little fellow," "always sweet-tempered, humorous, conscientious, thoroughly good, and thoroughly beloved." In a 1953 radio interview, novelist Evelyn Waugh was asked "What painters do you admire most?". He answered "Augustus Egg I’d put among the highest." Gallery Past and Present Select Paintings Notes References Collins, Wilkie. Letters of Wilkie Collins. Edited by William Baker and William Malpas Clarke; London: Palgrave Macmillan, 1999. Cowling, Mary. Victorian Figurative Painting. London, Andreas Papadakis Publisher, 2001. Ley, J. W. T. The Dickens Circle: A Narrative of the Novelist's Friendships. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1919. Valentine, Helen, ed. Art in the Age of Queen Victoria: Treasures from the Royal Academy of Arts Permanent Collection. New Haven and London: Yale University Press / Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1999. External links Phryne's list of pictures in accessible collections in the UK 19th-century English painters English male painters Royal Academicians 1816 births 1863 deaths Painters from London 19th-century English male artists