Thomas Webster RA, British 1800-1886- Children playing at musicians; pencil and watercolour on paper, 15.4 x 21.5 cm. Provenance: With Appleby Bros, London [No. B.J.A.466]. Note: Webster’s early work focussed on portraits until in 1827 he received acclaim for a scene of playful children, ‘Rebels Shooting a Prisoner’, which led him to continue the narrative in 'Rebels Defeated’ (1828). His genial and humorous depictions of children from everyday life soon became his speciality, and such works were often inspired by popular literature, including Charles Dickens, Shakespeare and William Wordsworth. Webster initially trained as a chorister, first in Windsor and then at St James’s Palace, and this early interest is clearly evident in the present work. The last thirty years of his life were spent at the artists' colony in Cranbrook, Kent, where he proved influential to fellow artists George Bernard O'Neill and Frederick Daniel Hardy. He was unrivalled in the subjects he turned his hand to, and his pictures, much like the present work, are skilful renderings in close observation and detail. Please refer to department for condition report