Oil paint on canvas
Tate Britain
Tate Collection
Works with images
Works on display
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/frederick-walker-575" aria-label="More by Frederick Walker" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Frederick Walker</a>
Vagrants
Purchased 1886
actions: postures and motions
adults
baby
boy
campfire
cart
children
clothing and personal items
crouching
family
family
girl
group
groups
health and welfare
heathland
heating and lighting
hill
homelessness
landscape
mother and child
natural phenomena
objects
people
pool
shawl
smoke
society
transport: land
water: inland
woman
<p>Frederick Walker painted this after seeing gypsies on Clapham Common, south London. He tried to use the gypsies as models but found that they had moved on. Instead his sister Polly posed for the standing woman. The background landscape was painted in the open air at Beddington, near Croydon.Walker originally made<i> The Vagrants</i> as an illustration in the magazine <i>Once a Week</i>. He worked it up into an oil painting to show at the Royal Academy. It failed to find a buyer, but it had a great influence on younger artists who specialised in social-realist subjects.</p><p><em>Gallery label, July 2007</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
8 August 2005 – 4 October 2010
2010-10-04
8 August 2005 – 4 October 2010
2010-10-04
2005-08-08
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2005-08-08
Victorian Spectacle
Collection based display
1 February 2019 – 2 June 2019
2019-06-02
1 February 2019 – 2 June 2019
2019-06-02
2019-02-01
Fondation de l’Hermitage (Lausanne, Switzerland)
http://www.fondation-hermitage.ch
2019-02-01
British painting during the Victorian era
Loan-out
26 September 2022
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2022-09-26
Gallery 9
Collection based display
The Vagrants
support: 832 × 1264 mm
frame: 1027 × 1567 × 120 mm
Purchased 1886
<p>Frederick Walker painted this after seeing gypsies on Clapham Common, south London. He tried to use the gypsies as models but found that they had moved on. Instead his sister Polly posed for the standing woman. The background landscape was painted in the open air at Beddington, near Croydon.Walker originally made<i> The Vagrants</i> as an illustration in the magazine <i>Once a Week</i>. He worked it up into an oil painting to show at the Royal Academy. It failed to find a buyer, but it had a great influence on younger artists who specialised in social-realist subjects.</p>

Display caption
2007-07-11T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
actions: postures and motions adults baby boy campfire cart children clothing and personal items crouching family family girl group groups health and welfare heathland heating and lighting hill homelessness landscape mother and child natural phenomena objects people pool shawl smoke society transport: land water: inland woman