William Powell Frith, Royal Academician, 1880. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1840, and became a member in 1852. In the early years his subjects derived from authors such as Scott, Sterne, Goldsmith, Molière, Cervantes, and Shakespeare. A visit to Ramsgate in 1851 led him to change his subject matter and to focus on more everyday Victorian scenes, hence the works The Derby Day of 1858, and The Railway Station of 1862, which proved immensely popular. From Men of Mark: a gallery of contemporary portraits of men distinguished in the Senate, the Church, in science, literature and art, the army, navy, law, medicine, etc. Photographed from life by Lock and Whitfield, with brief biographical notices by Thompson Cooper. (Conducted by G. C. Whitfield.) (London, 1876-1883).
