Skip to content

Home
Search
Your album
Learn more

Images

A beautiful responsive image

Interior of a Peasant's Cottage, Minlough, Co. Galway, Ireland

©The Whitworth, The University of Manchester | All Rights Reserved

Start Zooming Stop Zooming

Current search
Add To Album

Date

1845

Artist

Francis William Topham (1808-1877)

Collection

The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Image Link

http://gallerysearch.ds.man.ac.uk/Detail/391

Description

The fire confined to the fireplace was no doubt for man the first object of reverie.Gaston Bachelard, The Psychoanalysis of FireIn Von Ostade's print, the family gathers around the hearth, a source of warmth, food and light. Despite its clean-cut, smokeless coal nature, Caulfield's fire continues this tradition of being an object of reverie. Hilton depicts the kitchen, the very heart of the house. The characteristics of the kitchen as a place of warmth and comfort are complicated by the knowledge that at the time of painting Hilton was bed-ridden and was to die the same year.In contrast to these valorised scenes, Topham depicts the hearth of an Irish cottage as a site of poverty. The father is absent, the peat fire is small and smouldering and the woman and child are observed coldly from a distance. Fripp goes one step further and leaves the hearth out of his work completely. The house of the poachers is represented as more of an animal's lair than a home.

Image Licence

All Rights Reserved

Image Credit

©The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Location

Menlough, County Galway, Republic of Ireland

Country

Republic of Ireland

Tags

Buildings
Interiors
People

Category

People & Society

Glossary
Search tips

© 2024 Watercolour World | Technology by The Museum Platform

© 2024 Watercolour World | Technology by The Museum Platform