Going to School by Thomas Webster, R. A.

Thomas Webster, R.A. (British, 1800–1886)
Going to School, 1842
Oil on panel
28 ¼ × 42 ½ in.
Faintly signed lower left: Webster

Thomas Webster was a leading English genre painter of the Victorian period, admired for his sympathetic depictions of childhood and domestic life. Born in Pimlico, London, in 1800, Webster initially trained as a chorister at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, before turning to art and enrolling at the Royal Academy Schools in 1824. His early musical training sharpened his sensitivity to expression and storytelling, qualities that would define his painting. He became an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1840 and a full Academician in 1846.

Going to School, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1842, exemplifies Webster’s gift for narrative painting. The composition captures a poignant domestic moment as a child prepares to leave home for school. Each figure conveys a distinct emotion—maternal tenderness, sibling unease, paternal reflection—woven into a scene of everyday ritual that resonates with universal human experience. The attentive detail, from the family dog to the scattered belongings, underscores Webster’s ability to elevate the ordinary into scenes of moral and emotional weight.

Webster spent much of his later life in Cranbrook, Kent, where he became part of the “Cranbrook Colony” of artists devoted to nostalgic and moralizing depictions of rural and family life. His works, widely popular in Victorian England, reflect both the sentimental values and the rising importance of childhood education in the 19th century.

Provenance: Estate of Eugene Iglesias, Hollywood, California. Frost & Reed, Ltd., London.

Exhibited: Royal Academy, London, The Seventy-Fourth Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, 1842, no. 251.