The Widower

A father left alone with his children

In a dark cottage, a labourer holds a sick child on his lap and presses its hand to his lips. Around him, the other children play or eat, unaware. The mother is gone: the title tells us he is a widower.

Luke Fildes painted The Widower in 1876, developing a drawing he had made for the illustrated paper The Graphic. The painting belongs to the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney.

Rough hands, tender gesture

The father is still in his work clothes, his boots muddy. He bends over the pale child with great tenderness. The contrast between his rough appearance and his gentle gesture is the emotional centre of the painting.

The eldest daughter weeps

Behind him, his eldest daughter stands at the table, a cloth to her face. She seems to understand how ill the child is. She will now have to take her mother’s place.

Children who do not understand

In the foreground, two small children drink from a bowl and laugh with a dog.

A baby crawls on the floor. Their innocence makes the father’s grief harder to bear.

Painting the poor

Fildes was one of a group of Victorian artists, with Frank Holl and Hubert von Herkomer, who painted the lives of the poor with sympathy. Fifteen years later he painted The Doctor, another scene of a sick child in a humble home.

From illustration to painting

Like many of Fildes’s works, The Widower began as a black-and-white illustration for The Graphic, a magazine that published images of social life. Fildes then developed it into a large oil painting, shown at the Royal Academy in 1876. The painting was praised for its realism and emotional power.

Social concern in Victorian art

In the 1870s, a group of British artists, including Fildes, Hubert von Herkomer and Frank Holl, painted the lives of the poor. Their work drew attention to poverty, illness and hardship. Vincent van Gogh, who collected illustrations from The Graphic, admired Fildes and these artists.

A father’s grief

The labourer is still in his working clothes, having just returned home. He holds a sick child and presses its hand to his lips. His face shows deep sorrow. The eldest daughter stands nearby, taking on the role of mother. The younger children play, unaware of the tragedy. The contrast between innocence and grief makes the scene especially moving.

A link to Fildes’s own life

Fildes himself later experienced loss when his son Philip died in 1877. That loss inspired The Doctor, painted in 1891. The Widower, painted before, shows Fildes’s early sensitivity to family grief.

Where to see it

The Widower belongs to the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney. Our hand-painted oil reproduction follows this composition. You can also read about Fildes’s The Doctor and Applicants for Admission to a Casual Ward.

Questions about The Widower

Who painted it?

Luke Fildes, in 1876.

Where is the original?

Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.

Where did the idea come from?

From a drawing Fildes made for the illustrated paper The Graphic.

Is it related to The Doctor?

Both show a sick child in a poor home; The Doctor was painted in 1891.

What was The Graphic?

A Victorian illustrated magazine that published images of social life.

Who admired Fildes’s illustrations?

Vincent van Gogh, who collected them.

Sources and image credit

• Art Gallery of New South Wales: collection
• Wikimedia Commons: The widower

Public-domain reproduction of The Widower (1876), via Wikimedia Commons (Google Art Project). Detail images are crops of the same historical painting; no reconstruction or upscaling.