William Powell Frith

Born in Yorkshire and trained at the Royal Academy Schools, William Powell Frith is best remembered today for painting highly detailed scenes of modern life. In 1869 he visited Bad Homburg, a German spa near Frankfurt which was known for its gambling casino. Learning that the gaming tables were to be closed in 1871 at the expiration of the casino's thirty-three year lease, Frith began to make drawings for the large scale representation of gamblers at the Salon d'Or, shown here. Using photographs as well as some of the actual fittings from the room, such as croupier's rakes, empty rouleau-cases, and chairs from the gaming tables, Frith was able to create an accurate representation of the casino. In addition, he arranged the figures to underscore the tragic side of gambling. While a young man in the left foreground implores his female companion in a red dress to lend him more money, a couple in the middle of the room cast looks of reproval on a woman clad in a dove-grey dress at the center, who has just turned away from the gaming table. Her misfortune in the middle of this public arena sets the tone, one of Victorian moralizing, for the entire painting.