Widow Costard's cow and goods, distrained for taxes, are redeemed by the generosity of Johnny Pearmain

Edward Penny, 1714–1791, British, Widow Costard's cow and goods, distrained for taxes, are redeemed by the generosity of Johnny Pearmain, 1782

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Creator:: Edward Penny, 1714–1791
Title:: Widow Costard's cow and goods, distrained for taxes, are redeemed by the generosity of Johnny Pearmain
Former Title(s):: Widow Costard's cow and goods, distrained for taxes, are redeemed by Johnny Pearmain
Date:: 1782
Materials & Techniques:: Oil on canvas
Dimensions:: 36 x 31 inches (91.4 x 78.7 cm), Frame: 2 x 39 x 34 inches (5.1 x 99.1 x 86.4 cm)
Credit Line:: Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:: Public Domain
Accession Number:: B1981.25.498
Classification:: Paintings
Collection:: Paintings and Sculpture
Link to Frame:: B1981.25.498FR
Subject Terms:: animal | apron (main garment) | bench | bonnet (hat) | boy | breeches (trousers) | buckles | chimney (architectural element) | coats | cottage | cravat | dress (costume) | genre subject | hats | horns | men | portrait | pots | purse (wallet) | sadness | shoes (footwear) | staff (walking stick) | stockings | taxes | tree | tricorne | waistcoat | writ
Access:: Not on view
Link:: https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:982
Export:: XML
IIIF Manifest:: JSON

Edward Penny exhibited this picture at the Royal Academy in 1782. A genre picture with a moral about practical charity, it represents Johnny Pearmain, the scion of a Shropshire family, paying off a widow’s debts at the eleventh hour. Bailiffs have already begun driving away her cow, her sole means of subsistence, and are preparing to take possession of her cottage to render her homeless. Penny made a reputation with these small, moralizing pictures, scaled to modest domestic interiors, which reflect the changing market for art that emerged with the advent of public exhibitions in the 1760s.

Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016

' Art on the Line ' : the Royal Academy Exhibitions at Somerset House 1780-1836 (The Courtauld Gallery, 2001-10-17 - 2002-01-20) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Art on the line : the Royal Academy exhibitions at Somerset House, 1780-1836 : [catalogue of works], , The Courtauld Gallery, London, 2001, no. 47, V 0909 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Malcolm Cormack, Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1985, pp. 178-179, N590.2 A83 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Exhibition Catalogue. 1782. 14th., Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, no. 14, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1782, p. 4, no. 30, N5054 A53 14-28 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Painting in England 1700-1850 : collection of Mr. & Mrs. Paul Mellon : Exhibition at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, , 1,2, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA, 1963, p. 130 (v.1), no. 246, pl. 148, ND466 V57 v.1-2 (YCBA) [YCBA]

David H. Solkin, Art on the Line : the Royal Academy Exhibitions at Somerset House 1780-1836, , Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 2001, Foldout No 31, N5054 A78 2001B (YCBA) [YCBA]

The First hundred years of the Royal Academy, 1769-1868, Winter exhibition, 1951-52. , Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1951, p. 60, no. 117, N5054 .A545 1951/52 (YCBA) Also available Fiche B185 at the YCBA Reference Library and Photo Archive [YCBA]

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