Oil paint on paper mounted on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Robert Vernon
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/richard-redgrave-441" aria-label="More by Richard Redgrave" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Richard Redgrave</a>
Country Cousins
Presented by Robert Vernon 1847
actions: expressive
actions: postures and motions
actions: processes and functions
adults
animals: mammals
architecture
Bible: New Testament
boy
candelabra
children
clothing and personal items
contrast
cup / mug
disgust
Dives and Lazarus
dog - non-specific
domestic
domestic
eating
eating and drinking
egg
eggcup
emotions and human qualities
emotions, concepts and ideas
family
family
features
fine arts and music
food and drink
furnishings
greeting
hat, bonnet
health and welfare
heating and lighting
history
humility
interiors
kettle
kitchen
leisure and pastimes
living room
looking / watching
Luke, chapter 16
man
morality
newspaper, ‘Public Ledger’
objects
painting
panelling
people
period: 18th c.
politics and society
poverty
reading
reading, writing, printed matter
recreational activities
religion and belief
satire
servant
shawl
sitting
social comment
social contrast - ‘Dives and Lazarus’ painting
society
society
standing
symbols and personifications
table
talking
tea pot
universal concepts
woman
work and occupations
<p>This scene is set in the mid-eighteenth century. A country family receives a frosty welcome from their richer relations who they hope will give them money. No-one stands up to greet them. The two women at the table whisper and glance haughtily at the young boy. And the man on the left continues to read his newspaper. Above the fireplace a painting illustrates the biblical story of Dives and Lazarus – in which the wealthy Dives ignores the suffering Lazarus at his palace gate. Some critics missed this message and saw the picture simply as an embarrassing meeting.</p><p><em>Gallery label, May 2007</em></p>
painting oil paint paper mounted canvas
1 August 2005 – 2 March 2008
2008-03-02
1 August 2007
2007-08-01
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2005-08-01
Victorian Paintings of Modern Life
Collection based display
Country Cousins
support: 825 × 1073 mm
Presented by <a href="/search?gid=999999978" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Robert Vernon</a> 1847
<p>Set in mid-18<sup>th</sup> Century England, this is a characteristic example of Redgrave's moralising <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/g/genres" title="Glossary definition for 'Genres'"><span>genre</span></a> scenes. The key to the picture lies in the loosely worked picture over the fireplace - an illustration of the parable of Dives and Lazarus (the rich man at his table, the poor man at his gate) - indicating that the country cousins have come in the hope of getting some help from their rich relations. 

</p><p>Redgrave's observation is clearly satirical. The rich wife is finely dressed and displays her rings prominently, but she is overweight and neither she nor her daughter has been blessed with good looks.  The country cousins are more sympathetic and well groomed, but their clothes are plain and even their dog appears to lack breeding. Their visit is made even more uncomfortable by the attitude of their richer relations. No-one rises to greet the visitors. The daughter whispers maliciously into the ear of her mother, who casts a haughty glance in the direction of the young boy. The husband reading the 'Public Ledger' at the window was characterised by the<i> Spectator</i> as 'a good specimen of the sneer which recoils upon the satirizer himself' (quoted in Casteras and Parkinson, p.131). 

</p><p>Redgrave wrote in his 'Autobiography', published in the <i>Art Journal</i> in 1854, 'it is one of my most gratifying feelings that many of my best efforts in art have aimed at calling attention to the trials and struggles of the poor and the oppressed' (<i>Art Journal</i>, 1854, p.320); and when this picture was first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1848, the critic of the <i>Athenaeum </i>recognised that the artist was 'once more arguing by the means of Art for the redress of social wrong' (quoted in Hamlyn 1993, p.58). The rich colour and loose handling is typical of the works he produced during the 1840s, in spite of which the <i>Illustrated London News </i>criticised the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> for its hard colouring, declaring that it was 'hardly a good specimen of Mr Redgrave's manner' (quoted in Casteras and Parkinson 1988, p.131). However the same critic also commented that the picture was 'less painful in its story, and [had] less of a rich and poor about it than the subjects usually chosen by Mr Redgrave.'  Some critics seem to have missed the picture's moral message altogether, and regarded the meeting of the two sides of the family merely as unexpected and fraught with embarrassment. 

</p><p><b>Further reading:<br/></b>Susan P. Casteras and Ronald Parkinson (eds), <i>Richard Redgrave 1804-1888</i>, exhibition catalogue, Victoria and Albert Musuem, London 1988, pp.131-2, no.89, reproduced p.132.<br/>Robin Hamlyn, <i>Robert Vernon's Gift - British Art for the Nation 1847</i>, Tate Gallery, London 1993, p.58, illustrated p.58.

</p><p>Frances Fowle<br/>December 2000</p>
Summary
2005-12-22T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<p>This scene is set in the mid-eighteenth century. A country family receives a frosty welcome from their richer relations who they hope will give them money. No-one stands up to greet them. The two women at the table whisper and glance haughtily at the young boy. And the man on the left continues to read his newspaper. Above the fireplace a painting illustrates the biblical story of Dives and Lazarus – in which the wealthy Dives ignores the suffering Lazarus at his palace gate. Some critics missed this message and saw the picture simply as an embarrassing meeting.</p>

Display caption
2007-05-07T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
actions: expressive actions: postures and motions actions: processes and functions adults animals: mammals architecture Bible: New Testament boy candelabra children clothing and personal items contrast cup / mug disgust Dives and Lazarus dog - non-specific domestic domestic eating eating and drinking egg eggcup emotions and human qualities emotions, concepts and ideas family family features fine arts and music food and drink furnishings greeting hat, bonnet health and welfare heating and lighting history humility interiors kettle kitchen leisure and pastimes living room looking / watching Luke, chapter 16 man morality newspaper, ‘Public Ledger’ objects painting panelling people period: 18th c. politics and society poverty reading reading, writing, printed matter recreational activities religion and belief satire servant shawl sitting social comment social contrast - ‘Dives and Lazarus’ painting society society standing symbols and personifications table talking tea pot universal concepts woman work and occupations