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Lot Essay
Watercolours by Kilburne on such an impressive scale as this rarely appear in the salerooms. His interiors depicting 18th century family life and courtship and characters in 17th century costume became immensley popular at the turn of the century and were widely reproduced through engravings. Having been apprenticed to the Dalziel brothers for five years Kilburne also contributed to Punch, the Windsor Magazine, the Quiver, and the English Illustrated Magazine. His work was frequently seen at the Royal Academy, the Royal Society of British Artists, the New Watercolour Society and the Grosvenor Galleries.
The present watercolour is unusual for Kilburne, in that it depicts a well known scene from literature, that of Miss Pinkerton's Academy from William Makepeace Thakeray's masterpiece Vanity Fair, issued in monthly installments from January 1847 to July 1848.
Thakeray's allegory charts the lives of two young ladies of vastly differing fortunes who meet at Miss Pinkerton's Academy for young ladies. Set in the time of the Napoleonic Wars the novel gives a satirical picture of a wordly society and follows the lives of Becky Sharp the penniless orphaned daughter of an artist and a French opera singer and Amelia Sedley, the sheltered child of a rich City merchant.
The novel commences thus: 'While the present century was in its teens, and on one sunshiny morning in June, there drove up to the great iron gate of Miss Pinkerton's academy for young ladies, on Chiswick Mall, a large family coach ... as soon as the equipage drew up opposite Miss Pinkerton's shining brass plate ... at least a score of young heads were seen peering out of the narrow windows of the stately old brick house.'
It is interesting to speculate, which of the young ladies in the present watercolour is Becky and which Amelia.
The present watercolour is unusual for Kilburne, in that it depicts a well known scene from literature, that of Miss Pinkerton's Academy from William Makepeace Thakeray's masterpiece Vanity Fair, issued in monthly installments from January 1847 to July 1848.
Thakeray's allegory charts the lives of two young ladies of vastly differing fortunes who meet at Miss Pinkerton's Academy for young ladies. Set in the time of the Napoleonic Wars the novel gives a satirical picture of a wordly society and follows the lives of Becky Sharp the penniless orphaned daughter of an artist and a French opera singer and Amelia Sedley, the sheltered child of a rich City merchant.
The novel commences thus: 'While the present century was in its teens, and on one sunshiny morning in June, there drove up to the great iron gate of Miss Pinkerton's academy for young ladies, on Chiswick Mall, a large family coach ... as soon as the equipage drew up opposite Miss Pinkerton's shining brass plate ... at least a score of young heads were seen peering out of the narrow windows of the stately old brick house.'
It is interesting to speculate, which of the young ladies in the present watercolour is Becky and which Amelia.