PAINTINGS depicting working class people in the 19th Century North-East have been discovered on the other side of the world.
The watercolours, which depict workers, beggars and peddlers in the 1820s, were found in a drawer in a back room of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, in Hobart, Tasmania.
Among the 51 paintings, by little-known English artist John Dempsey, are two showing the life of Durham residents at the end of the Regency period.
One shows Thomas Archbold, a fishmonger from Durham, and another a gardener from the city.
Dempsey travelled the country painting pictures of the working classes. He diligently recorded the dates and places of his work, and often the names and occupations of his subjects.
The paintings are considered important because while portraits of aristocrats and landowners from the end of the Georgian era are plentiful, the poor were almost never painted as individuals.
Published: 10/08/2004
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