Dolly Varden

William Powell Frith's Dolly Varden of 1842 depicts the beloved character from Charles Dickens's Barnaby Rudge, published the previous year in 1841, who became an immediate cultural phenomenon and one of the most popular visual subjects in early Victorian Britain. Dolly Varden — the coquettish, charming daughter of a Soho locksmith — was celebrated for her vivid costume, particularly her cherry-coloured mantle and petticoat, and her name was quickly attached to a fashion style. Frith was among the first and most prolific painters of Dolly Varden subjects, and his several versions show the character's importance to his early career as a literary genre painter. The picture participates in the phenomenon of Dickensian illustration-as-art that made Victorian literary painting such a commercially vital genre in the 1840s.

Frith renders Dolly in her characteristic vivid costume with the attention to period dress and expressive characterization that marks his literary subjects. The figure is shown with the animation and charm that Dickens described, her coquettry conveyed through pose and expression. The palette includes the character's famous cherry reds prominent in the costume.