John Scott Cavell

Mrs Charlotte Frank, where bought  by Sir David Scott in September 1957

London, British Institution, 1859, no.550

STRUCTURE Original canvas PAINT SURFACE There are a couple of small cracks to the lower centre edge. Also a couple of very minor chips to the surface in the far upper left corner. Otherwise in good overall condition. ULTRAVIOLET UV light reveals old retouching to the lower border, spots along the left side of the dress on the left and outlining to the hand of the lady on the right and a further spot to her face. An opaque varnish prevents a more conclusive examination. FRAME Held in a lightly decorative gold composite frame.
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'I have no doubt that this depicts an episode in a contemporary book but I have never been able to track down its origin. I bought it... principally because I was attracted by the girl's (verging I feel on womanhood) shawl and the interest of the conundrum the picture poses. No doubt the gypsy, watching the girl's face intently to see her reaction, is saying smooth things, possibilities or probabilities, calculated to extract more than the token "silver coin"' Sir David Scott

Little is known of Cavell's career other than that he lived in London, firstly in Russell Square and latterly at Grays Inn Square, and exhibited at the Royal Academy, British Institution and at the Liverpool Autumn Exhibitions until around 1862. In 1858 he exhibited a painting entitled Marietta at the Carnival at the Royal Society of British Artists which may have depicted a similar scene to the present picture. Scenes of carnival and gypsy life were popular in the mid-nineteenth century, often with sinister undertones. However in the present picture Cavell painted the gypsy fortune-teller as a pleasant-faced itinerant with a child, rather than the stereotyped charlatans presented in other paintings. An example of the way in which nineteenth century artists depicted fortune-tellers is the malevolent gypsy hag depicted at the right of William Powell Frith's Derby Day (Tate), attempting to persuade an elegant female race-goer to part with a piece of silver. The richly-attired girl is disturbed by the gypsy's encroachments and tries to hide beneath her parasol as the soothsayer leers over the side of her carriage. Cavell had probably seen Derby Day when it was exhibited in 1858 at the Royal Academy; almost everyone in London with an interest in art would have seen the picture which was the sensation of the exhibition and guarded by a policeman to hold back the crowd. Janet and the Strolling Fortune Teller was exhibited only a year after Frith's painting but Cavell chose to depict the gypsy as a more sympathetic figure. The fashionable young lady in his picture listens intently to the prophesy and by the smile upon the fortune-teller's face it would appear that she is delivering a favourable forecast. The title of the picture remains enigmatic and no trace has been found of a text from which the subject may have been taken (the elegance of the lady and the feminine charm of the fortune teller rule out Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte). It is possible that the story was of Cavell's invention.