Thorpe Water Frolic, Afternoon

Joseph Stannard is considered to be one of the most talented members of the Norwich Society of Artists and is highly regarded for his marine and shipping subjects. He is less known than some of his contemporaries due to bouts of ill health that stopped him from painting for long periods, followed by his early death from tuberculosis at the age of thirty-three.

A water frolic was held annually on the river Yare at Thorpe, on the outskirts of Norwich. There were sailing and rowing races, fireworks, music and dancing, feasting and drinking. In 1824 nearly 20,000 people watched the festivities. The artist, a skilled oarsman, competed in the races and has included himself in the painting, standing in a red coat and shading his eyes with his hand. A busy composition dominated by a bright sky charged with a rolling cloud formation, this is Stannard's most ambitious work. He painted the gentry in their finery congregated in the grounds of Thorpe Hall on one side of the river and the working people on the other. Presiding over the ceremonies in a Venetian gondola is the leading manufacturer and owner of Thorpe Hall, John Harvey.