Dolly Varden

Dolly Varden is one of several characters from Charles Dickens's historical novel Barnaby Rudge (1841) who inspired Victorian painters. Dolly, the flirtatious locksmith's daughter set against the backdrop of the Gordon Riots of 1780, became a type rather than merely a character — her name attached itself to a style of dress and became a byword for coquettish charm. Frith painted Dolly Varden in 1842 and again here in 1845, demonstrating sustained interest in the character. His friendship with Dickens made such subjects personal as well as professional: the two men met in 1842 and remained friends until the novelist's death in 1870. Victorian literary genre painting depended on a shared reading public, and Dickens's mass readership guaranteed that images of Dolly would be instantly legible and commercially appealing. The Tate holds this work as part of its collection of Victorian subject painting.

Oil on canvas with the characteristic bright palette and detailed costume rendering that Frith developed for his literary genre scenes. The painting demonstrates close attention to the textures of dress — lace, ribbon, fabric — that made such works appealing to engravers and to a public that associated Dolly Varden with a particular look and temperament.