The South Sea Bubble

For the historical event, see South Sea Company.
The South Sea Bubble
ArtistEdward Matthew Ward
Year1847
TypeOil on canvas, history painting
Dimensions129.5 cm × 188 cm (51.0 in × 74 in)
LocationTate Britain, London

The South Sea Bubble, a Scene in 'Change Alley in 1720 is an 1847 history painting by the British artist Edward Matthew Ward.[1] It depicts a scene in Exchange Alley in the City of London when the South Sea Bubble was at its height in 1720 shortly before its dramatic collapse. It was a centre of financial speculation and Ward depicts it in a Hogarthian manner.[2]

Ward had been one of the members of The Clique, a group of artists including William Powell Frith, John Phillip and Henry Nelson O'Neil. Although it was painted more than a century after the evens of the South Sea Bubble, it came shortly after the Railway Mania of the 1840s.[3]

It was exhibited at the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition in 1847. It was donated to the National Gallery by the art collector Robert Vernon. Today it is in the collection of Tate Britain.[4]

References

  1. ^ Dafforne p.xli
  2. ^ Thomas p.116
  3. ^ Ziemba, Zhitlukhin & Lleo p.2
  4. ^ https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/ward-the-south-sea-bubble-a-scene-in-change-alley-in-1720-n00432

Bibliography

  • Dafforne, James. The Life and Works of Edward Matthew Ward. Virtue and Company, 1879.
  • Thomas, Julia. Pictorial Victorians: The Inscription of Values in Word and Image. Ohio University Press, 2004.
  • Ziemba, William T., Zhitlukhin, Mikhail & Lleo, Sebastien . Stock Market Crashes: Predictable And Unpredictable And What To Do About Them. World Scientific, 2017.
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