2-970-123 - /Heritage Images

"Market-Day" - painted by G. B. O'Neil - from the Exhibition of the Royal Academy, 1856. 'In this production Mr. O'Neil...takes a higher flight and a wider range than any he has previously attempted...The "humours of a Country Fair" have been frequently sung and painted ; they are here combined with those of the ordinary market-day; and, though diverse enough, the materials are harmoniously associated. The market-cart, and the old vegetable woman in the front, are truly rustic in character; and between them stands the beadle in all the splendour of office. In the background are a travelling booth, and the advertising-van of the Hippodrome in "full play." The village architecture, and the scene generally, are very pleasingly treated, and a genial air floats across the whole'. Note blind man begging next to barber's shop. From "Illustrated London News", 1856.