Lot 56: FREDERICK IFOLD

FREDERICK IFOLD 1816 - 1897 ON THE ENGLISH COAST signed and dated l.r.: Frederick Ifold. 1858. oil on canvas 46 by 61cm., 18 by 24in.

The Victorians loved to visit the seaside and many of the great British coastal resorts were in their heyday in the nineteenth century when the railways allowed large numbers of people to travel easily to the resorts that expanded along Britain's coast. Artists were inspired by the seasonal deluge of people that amassed on the beaches of Brighton, Scarborough and Ramsgate and perhaps one of the most famous of all Victorian paintings is William Powell Frith's Life at the Seaside - Ramsgate Sands of 1854 (Royal collection) which depicts the rather humorous sight of crowds of ladies in crinolines and gentlemen in starched suits vying for space on the beach. The present picture painted by Ifold only four years later captures some of the same picturesque aspects as Frith's painting with smartly dressed children making sand castles whilst their nurse or mother looks on and a dog slumbers. The female figure's Paisley shawl suggests that it might be a little too cold to venture into the water but the children are oblivious to the grey skies and only interested in their magnificent construction.

Ifold's work is rare; he only exhibited four pictures at the Royal Academy in the twenty years between 1847 and 1867 with subjects ranging from Old Testament and Shakespearean scenes to a London water-cress seller (sold in these rooms, 19 November 2008, lot 121 from the collection of Sir David and Lady Scott) and a landscape on the Isle of Wight. The last picture, painted at Ryde in 1848 may suggest a location for the present view and perhaps the steamer boat shown in the background is the ferry that travelled between the island and the English coast. This may explain the tricolor flag as the Isle of Wight was also popular with French tourists.