Oil paint on canvas
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<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/william-powell-frith-194" aria-label="More by William Powell Frith" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">William Powell Frith</a>
Derby Day
Bequeathed by Jacob Bell 1859
acrobat
actions: processes and functions
adults
animals: mammals
architecture
arts and entertainment
binoculars
boy
carriage
children
class
clothing and personal items
contemporary society
crowd
dog - non-specific
eating and drinking
entertainer
fine arts and music
girl
groups
hat
horse racing
instrument, drum
leisure and pastimes
looking / watching
man
marquee
morality
objects
parasol
people
picnic
places of entertainment
prostitution
race course
scientific and measuring
sex and relationships
smock
social comment
society
sport
trader
trading and commercial
transport: land
woman
work and occupations
<p>The Derby Day was first exhibited in 1858 at the Royal Academy in London. It was so popular that a barrier had to be put up to protect the work. The annual Derby at Epsom Downs racecourse in Surrey, south-east England attracted huge crowds. Frith’s detailed panorama focuses on the day’s entertainment, relegating the racing to the margins. On the left, a group of men in top hats bet on a game-playing ‘trickster’. In the centre, a crowd of bare-footed children watches an acrobat and his son. Behind them are carriages filled with racegoers enjoying Derby day.</p><p><em>Gallery label, November 2019</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
29 August 2001 – 25 July 2005
2005-07-25
29 August 2001
2001-08-29
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2001-08-29
Art and Victorian Society
Collection based display
1 November 2006 – 15 July 2007
2007-07-15
1 November 2006 – 31 March 2007
2007-03-31
2006-11-01
Guildhall Art Gallery (London, UK)
http://www.guildhall-art-gallery.org.uk
24 March 2007 – 15 July 2007
2007-07-15
2007-03-24
Mercer Art Gallery (Harrogate, UK)
http://www.harrogate.gov.uk/immediacy-1405#MercerArtGallery
2006-11-01
William Powell Frith: Rich and Poor in Victorian London
Loan-out
20 February 2009 – 14 April 2009
2009-04-14
11 February 2009 – 26 April 2009
2009-04-26
2009-02-11
Leeds Art Gallery (Leeds, UK)
http://www.leeds.gov.uk/artgallery/
15 May 2009 – 11 July 2009
2009-07-11
2009-05-15
Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art (Sunderland, UK)
24 July 2009 – 5 September 2009
2009-09-05
2009-07-24
Grundy Art Gallery (Blackpool, UK)
2009-02-20
Rank: Picturing the social order
Loan-out
24 May 2012 – 30 September 2012
2012-09-30
24 May 2012 – 30 September 2012
2012-09-30
2012-05-24
British Museum (London, UK)
http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk
2012-05-24
The Horse in the Middle East and Beyond
Loan-out
5 November 2012 – 20 July 2014
2014-07-20
5 November 2012 – 20 July 2014
2014-07-20
2012-11-05
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2012-11-05
Gallery 9
Collection based display
10 October 2014 – 1 November 2015
2015-11-01
10 October 2014 – 1 November 2015
2015-11-01
2014-10-10
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2014-10-10
Poor Man's Picture Gallery
Collection based display
15 June 2019 – 29 September 2019
2019-09-29
15 June 2019 – 29 September 2019
2019-09-29
2019-06-15
Mercer Art Gallery (Harrogate, UK)
http://www.harrogate.gov.uk/immediacy-1405#MercerArtGallery
2019-06-15
William Powell Frith and the Victorian Oil Sketch
Loan-out
The Derby Day
support: 1016 × 2235 mm
frame: 1405 × 2640 × 140 mm
Bequeathed by Jacob Bell 1859
<p>When <i>The Derby Day</i> was first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1858, it proved so popular that a rail had to be put up to keep back the crowds. It presents a panorama of modern Victorian life, a previously unknown <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> which Frith largely created in his earlier work, <i>Life at the Seaside, Ramsgate Sands</i> of 1854 (Royal Collection). Frith was a firm believer in the spurious sciences of phrenology and social type, which considered people's characters and social origins were visible in their physical features. Each character in Frith's picture is depicted to conform to these stereotypes, notably in the range of criminal and low-life types present (see Cowling 1989, Ch.2).

</p><p>On the basis of an initial sketch, which he made after a visit to Epsom in 1856, Frith was commissioned by Jacob Bell, a chemist and amateur artist, to paint a large 5-6 foot <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/canvas" title="Glossary definition for 'Canvas'"><span>canvas</span></a> for £1,500. He worked on the project for fifteen months, producing two large sketches in addition to the finished work. He brought 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/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a> together with the aid of <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawings</span></a> and sketches, hiring models to pose for all the main figures.  He also commissioned the photographer Robert Howlett to '<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/photograph" title="Glossary definition for 'Photograph'"><span>photograph</span></a> for him from the roof of a cab as many queer groups of figures as he could' (<i>Journal of the Photographic Society</i>, 15 January 1863). He asked a real jockey called Bundy to pose on a hobbyhorse in his studio for the riders on the right of the picture, and also hired an acrobat and his son, whom he saw performing in a pantomime in Drury Lane. For the remaining figures he called on family and friends, as well as a string of young women sent by Jacob Bell.

</p><p>Despite a remarkable feat of organisation, the picture remains fairly static, and the figures are more interesting when examined individually.  There are three main incidents taking place in the picture.  On the far left, next to the Reform Club's private tent, a group of men in top hats focus on the thimble-rigger with his table, inviting the audience to participate in the game.  The man taking a note from his pocket is the trickster's accomplice.  He is tempting the rustic-looking man in a smock, whose wife is trying to restrain him.  On the right of this group, another man, with his hands in his pockets, has had his gold watch stolen by the man behind.  In the centre of the picture we see the acrobat and his son, who looks longingly over at a sumptuous picnic being laid out by a footman.  Behind them are carriages filled with race-goers, including a courtesan on the far right, who is the kept mistress of the foppish-looking character leaning against the carriage.  The courtesan is balanced on the far left of the picture by the woman in a dark riding habit, one of a number of high-class prostitutes who daily paraded on horseback in Hyde Park.

</p><p><b>Further reading:<br/></b>Aubrey Noakes, <i>William Frith: Extraordinary Victorian Painter</i>, London 1978, pp.59-69, reproduced in colour, pl.5.<br/>Mary Cowling, <i>The Artist as Anthropologist: The Representation of Type and Character in Victorian Art</i>, Cambridge 1989, Ch.2<br/><i>Tate Gallery: An Illustrated Companion</i>, London 1989, p.85, reproduced in colour

</p><p>Frances Fowle<br/>November 2000<br/>Revised by Robert Upstone August 2001</p>
Summary
2005-09-15T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<div><p><span>This painting was so popular when it was first exhibited in 1858 at the Royal Academy in London that a barrier had to be put up to protect the work. The annual Derby at Epsom Downs racecourse in Surrey, south-east England attracted huge crowds. William Powell Frith’s detailed panorama focuses on the day’s entertainment, relegating the racing to the margins. On the left, a group of men in top hats bet on a game-playing ‘trickster’. In the centre, a crowd of bare-footed children watches an acrobat and his son.</span></p></div>
Online caption
2024-04-22T00:00:00
online-caption
ONLINE_CAPTION
acrobat actions: processes and functions adults animals: mammals architecture arts and entertainment binoculars boy carriage children class clothing and personal items contemporary society crowd dog - non-specific eating and drinking entertainer fine arts and music girl groups hat horse racing instrument, drum leisure and pastimes looking / watching man marquee morality objects parasol people picnic places of entertainment prostitution race course scientific and measuring sex and relationships smock social comment society sport trader trading and commercial transport: land woman work and occupations