Information
The painting depicts the figure of a man slumped in death. The public and press saw the painting as a justified criticism of the Poor Law, which forced paupers to break stones to repair roads in return for food and shelter. When exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1858, instead of a title the painting was accompanied by a catalogue entry quoting Thomas Carlyle's (1795-1881) 'Sartor Resartus': 'Hardly-entreated Brother! For us thy back was so bent, for us were thy straight limbs and fingers so deformed: thou wert our Conscript, on whom the lot fell, and fighting our battles wert so marred. For in thee too lay a god-created Form, but it was not to be unfolded: encrusted must it stand with the thick adhesions and defacements of labour; and thy body, like thy soul, was not to know freedom.'The original frame was inscribed with a line from Tennyson's poem 'A Dirge': 'Now is done the long day's work'; the painting was exhibited under this title in Birmingham in 1861. The exhibition history of the painting is occasionally uncertain. A note attached to the back of the painting by the artist, dated 18th May 1884, reads: 'The stonebreaker was, I think, exhibited at the RA in 1858, also at Natl Exbn. at Dublin and again at Philadephia' (Birmingham files).The first owner of this painting, Viscount Powerscourt, owned another Wallis painting,'Henry Marten in Chepstow Gaol', also exhibited in Dublin in 1865. A smaller version of the painting from the collection of Jospeh Dixon was sold at Sotheby's Belgravia on 19th March 1979 (lot 18).
- Presented by Charles Aitken, 1936.
- © Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery
Makers
Association |
Artist |
Organisation |
Artist |
Henry Wallis |
- |
Inscriptions
Type |
Position(s) |
Method |
Date(s) |
Notes |
H WALLIS/1857 |
Signature and date |
bottom right |
- |
- |
|
|
Exhibitions
Catalogue No. |
Venue |
Date(s) |
Annual exhibition with quotation from Carlyle's 'Sartor Resartus': 'Hardly entreated, brother! For...' |
562 |
Royal Academy of Arts, London |
1858 - 1858 |
|
- |
no cat no |
Hogarth Club, London |
1859 - 1859 |
|
36th Exhibition: with a different Carlyle quote from the RA Exh. of 1858 |
54 |
Liverpool Academy of Arts |
1860 - 1860 |
|
exhibited with title 'Now is done thy long day's work' |
176 |
Birmingham Society of Artists |
1861 - 1861 |
|
Dublin International Exhibition of Art and Manufactures |
129 |
Dublin |
1865 - 1865 |
|
- |
- |
Philadelphia Museum of Art |
1968 - 1968-04-21 |
|
Annual Exhibition, lent by Joseph Dixon |
197 |
St Jude's School House, Whitechapel |
1887 - 1887 |
|
The Permanent Collection of Paintings, and a Special Loan Collection of Modern Pictures |
233 |
Birmingham Museum and City Art Gallery |
1891-10-02 - 1892 |
|
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood |
77 |
City Museums and Art Gallery, Birmingham |
1947-06-07 - 1947-07-27 |
|
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood 1848-1948 A Centenary Exhibition |
23 |
Tate Gallery, London |
1948-09 - 1948-09 |
|
The Victorian Romantics |
91 |
Leicester Galleries, London |
1949 - 1949 |
|
Some Pre-Raphaelite Paintings and Drawings |
71 |
National Library of Wales, Aberstwyth |
1955-07 - 1955- |
71 |
Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea |
1955 - 1955-10 |
|
Victorian Painting |
64 |
Aldeburgh |
1962 - 1962 |
|
Romantic Art in Britain: Paintings and Drawings 1760-1860 |
232 |
Detroit Institute of Arts |
1968-01-09 - 1968 |
232 |
Philadelphia Museum of Art |
1968 - 1968-04-21 |
|
Art and the Industrial Revolution |
66 |
Manchester City Art Gallery |
1968-05 - 1968-07 |
|
Bicentenary Exhibition 1768-1968 |
388 |
Royal Academy, London |
1968-12-14 - 1969-03-02 |
|
Work |
56 |
Welsh Arts Council |
1970 - 1970 |
|
The Pre-Raphaelites |
92 |
Tate Gallery, London |
1984-03-07 - 1984-05-28 |
|
Hard Times: Social Realism in Victorian Art |
23 |
Manchester Art Gallery |
1987-11-21 - 1987-01-17 |
|
Victorian Paintings |
49 |
Neue Pinakothek, Munich |
1993-02-19 - 1993-05-02 |
49 |
Museo del Prado, Spain |
1993-05-24 - 1993-07-01 |
|
Ruskin, Turner and the Pre-Raphaelites |
204 |
Tate Britain, London |
2000-03-09 - 2000-05-28 |
|
Exiles & Emigrants: Epic Journeys to Australia in the Victorian Era |
no cat. no |
National Gallery of Victoria, Australia |
2005-12-09 - 2006-06-04 |
|
Victorianische Malerei, von Turner bis Whistler |
49 |
Neue Pinakothek, Munich |
1993-02-26 - 1993 |
49 |
Museo del Prado, Madrid |
1993 - 1993-07-31 |
|
Visions of Love and Life: Pre-Raphaelite Art from the Birmingham Collection |
40 |
Seattle Art Museum; USA and Birmingham tour |
1995-03-09 - 1996-09-29 |
|
Literature
Author(s) |
Date(s) |
Publisher |
Pages |
- |
|
1 May 1858 |
The Athenaeum |
p.567 |
|
- |
|
15 May 1858 |
Illustrated London News |
p.498 |
|
- |
|
1858 |
Art Journal |
p.170 |
|
The Works of John Ruskin 1904-12 XIV |
|
1904-1912 |
- |
pp.153, 170 |
|
City Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham: Catalogue of Paintings |
|
1960 |
City Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham |
p.149 |
|
Royal Academy of Arts Bicentenary Exhibition 1768-1968 |
|
1968 |
Royal Academy, London |
388 |
|
The Pre-Raphaelites |
Timothy Hilton |
1970 |
Thames and Hudson, London |
p.122, pl.85 |
|
The Pre-Raphaelite Landscape |
Allen Staley |
1973 |
Clarendon Press, Oxford |
p.88, pl.43A, col.pl.5 |
|
Victorian Panorama: Paintings of Victorian Life |
Christopher Wood |
1976 |
Faber, London |
pp.118-20., fig.119 |
|
The Hogarth Club 1858-61 |
D Cherry |
1980 |
Burlington Magazine vol.122 |
pp.241,3,4,. fig.20 |
|
The Stonebreaker |
David Cordingly |
March 1982 |
Burlington Magazine |
p.141 |
|
The Pre-Raphaelites |
Leslie Parris |
1984 |
Penguin Books; Tate Gallery, London |
92 |
|
Hard Times: Social Realism in Victorian Art |
Julian Treuherz |
1987 |
Lund Humphries in association with Manchester City Art Gallery, London |
23 |
|
Kunst um 1800 und die Folgen (a collection of essays in honour of Werner Hofmann) |
Christian Beutler |
1988 |
Prestel-Verlag, Munich |
p.298 |
|
Artists of the Pre-Raphaelite Circle |
Mary Bennett |
1988 |
Lund Humphries in association with Manchester City Art Gallery, London |
p.16 |
|
Victorianische Maleriei, von Turner bis Whistler |
|
1993 |
Staatsgemaldesammlungen, Munich |
49 |
|
Visions of Love and Life: Pre-Raphaelite Art from the Birmingham Collection, England |
Stephen Wildman |
1995 |
Art Services International, Alexandria, Virginia |
pp.157-9 |
|
Sermons in Stones: John Brett's'The Stonebreaker' reconsidered in 'Reframing the Pre-Raphaelites' |
Christina Payne, Michael Hickox |
1996 |
Scolar Press |
pp. 99-114 |
|
Victorian Painting |
Graham Reynolds |
1996 |
London |
pp.68-9, 91-2 |
|
Ruskin, Turner and the Pre-Raphaelites |
|
2000 |
Tate Britain, London |
cat.204 |
|
The Art of the Pre-Raphaelites |
Elizabeth Prettejohn |
2000 |
Princeton University Press |
pp.239-42 |
|
Oil Paintings in Public Ownership in Birmingham |
|
2008 |
Public Catalogue Foundation, London |
p.195 |
Provenance
Viscount Powerscourt, Ireland; Temple Soames, Tunbridge Wells in 1880s; Joseph Dixon, 1887; Charles Aitken. |
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