William Powell Frith RA (9 January 1819 – 2 November 1909) was an English painter specialising in genre subjects and panoramic narrative works of life in the Victorian era. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1853, presenting The Sleeping Model as his Diploma work. He has been described as the "greatest British painter of the social scene since Hogarth".
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👉 William Powell Frith in the context of Opera glasses
Opera glasses, also known as theater binoculars or Galilean binoculars, are compact, low-power optical magnification devices, usually used at performance events, whose name is derived from traditional use of binoculars at opera performances. Magnification power below 5× is usually desired in these circumstances in order to minimize image shake and maintain a large enough field of view. A magnification of 3× is normally recommended. The design of many modern opera glasses of the ornamental variety is based on the popular lorgnettes of the 19th century. Often, modern theatre binoculars are equipped with an LED flashlight, which makes it easier to find a place in the dark.
In addition to the more stereotypical binocular type, folding opera glasses were another common design. They were made mostly of metal and glass, with a leatherette cover for grip and color. Although folding glasses have existed in one form or another since the 1890s, they were perhaps most popular in the mid-20th century and many from this era are marked "Made in Japan" or, less commonly, "Made in Occupied Japan". The design can still be purchased new, although the most common contemporary designs are now almost entirely plastic.
In this Dossier
- ⭐ Core Definition: William Powell Frith
- 👉 William Powell Frith in the context of Opera glasses
- William Powell Frith in the context of Signal (electrical engineering)
- William Powell Frith in the context of Shakespearean comedy
- William Powell Frith in the context of Victorian painting
- William Powell Frith in the context of A Private View at the Royal Academy
- William Powell Frith in the context of Private view
- William Powell Frith in the context of At the Opera (Frith)
William Powell Frith in the context of Signal (electrical engineering)
A signal is both the process and the result of transmission of data over some media accomplished by embedding some variation. Signals are important in multiple subject fields, including signal processing, information theory and biology.
View the full Wikipedia page for Signal (electrical engineering)William Powell Frith in the context of Shakespearean comedy
In the First Folio, the plays of William Shakespeare were grouped into three categories: comedies, histories, and tragedies; and modern scholars recognise a fourth category, romance, to describe the specific types of comedy that appear in Shakespeare's later works.
View the full Wikipedia page for Shakespearean comedyWilliam Powell Frith in the context of Victorian painting
Victorian painting refers to the distinctive styles of painting in the United Kingdom during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901). Victoria's early reign was characterised by rapid industrial development and social and political change, which made the United Kingdom one of the most powerful and advanced nations in the world. Painting in the early years of her reign was dominated by the Royal Academy of Arts and by the theories of its first president, Joshua Reynolds. Reynolds and the academy were strongly influenced by the Italian Renaissance painter Raphael, and believed that it was the role of an artist to make the subject of their work appear as noble and idealised as possible. This had proved a successful approach for artists in the pre-industrial period, where the main subjects of artistic commissions were portraits of the nobility and military and historical scenes. By the time of Victoria's accession to the throne, this approach was coming to be seen as stale and outdated. The rise of the wealthy middle class had changed the art market, and a generation who had grown up in an industrial age believed in the importance of accuracy and attention to detail, and that the role of art was to reflect the world, not to idealise it.
In the late 1840s and early 50s, a group of young art students formed the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood as a reaction against the teaching of the Royal Academy. Their works were based on painting as accurately as possible from nature when able, and when painting imaginary scenes to ensure they showed as closely as possible the scene as it would have appeared, rather than distorting the subject of the painting to make it appear noble. They also felt that it was the role of the artist to tell moral lessons, and chose subjects which would have been understood as morality tales by the audiences of the time. They were particularly fascinated by recent scientific advances which appeared to disprove the Biblical chronology, as they related to the scientists' attention to detail and willingness to challenge their own existing beliefs. Although the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was relatively short-lived, their ideas were highly influential.
View the full Wikipedia page for Victorian paintingWilliam Powell Frith in the context of A Private View at the Royal Academy
A Private View at the Royal Academy, 1881 is a painting by the English artist William Powell Frith exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in London in 1883. It depicts a group of distinguished Victorians visiting the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 1881, just after the death of the Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, whose portrait (visible in the archway at the back of the room) by John Everett Millais was included on a screen at the special request of Queen Victoria. The room is Gallery III, the largest and most imposing room at Burlington House.
Frith worked on the painting through much of 1881 and 1882. He later said in My Autobiography and Reminiscences, published in 1887, that "Beyond the desire of recording for posterity the aesthetic craze as regards dress, I wished to hit the folly of listening to self-elected critics in matters of taste, whether in dress or art. I therefore planned a group, consisting of a well-known apostle of the beautiful, with a herd of eager worshippers surrounding him."
View the full Wikipedia page for A Private View at the Royal AcademyWilliam Powell Frith in the context of Private view
A private view is a special viewing of an exhibition by invitation only, often an art exhibition and normally a preview at the start of a public exhibition. In the United Kingdom, a private view is generally open to all visitors. Typically wine and light refreshments are served in the form of a reception. If the works on show are by a living artist, it is normal for them to attend the private view. Artworks on view are typically for sale.
This type of exhibition set in a private setting is commonly referred to as the vernissage.
View the full Wikipedia page for Private viewWilliam Powell Frith in the context of At the Opera (Frith)
At the Opera is an oil on canvas painting by the British artist William Powell Frith, from 1855. It is held at the Harris Museum, in Preston.
View the full Wikipedia page for At the Opera (Frith)