Art Funded by you

Many Happy Returns of the Day

William Powell Frith, 1856

A Victorian dining room with the table set for a birthday tea. In the place of honour sits the little girl, whose health is being drunk, with a large wreath fixed vertically to the back of her chair. The child 'Alice' in the painting is Frith's daughter, later Lady Hastings, the father is a portrait of the artist, and the grandmother is a portrait of Mrs Frith Senior, who kept the Dragon Hotel in Harrogate, from 1826 to 1838. Described by Ruskin as a 'Taking Picture'.

More information

Title of artwork, date

Many Happy Returns of the Day, 1856

Date supported

1951

Medium and material

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

80 x 112 cm

Grant

300

Total cost

400

Content note: This object record is part of our archive and has not been updated since it was first published. It may contain inaccurate information or outdated language. Please get in touch if you think this record should be amended.

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