Page:The Strand Magazine (Volume 6).djvu/124

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THE STRAND MAGAZINE.
123

shipped on another boat, pitched ashore at Liverpool, walked to London, and slept in the parks until I came across him. One of these fellows in the picture walked up and down outside my house all night, so that he shouldn't be late in the morning! How he escaped the police is a mystery."


Study for drawing of Mr. Grewgius.
("Edwin Drood.")

"The Casuals" created a great sensation. It made a wonderful impression. Nothing at once so dramatic and real had been seen for years. The status of Mr. Luke Fildes arose at a bound. It was bought by the late Mr. Thos. Taylor, who also purchased "The Widower." Mr. Taylor's collection was eventually sold at Christie's, and "The Casuals" was sold to Sir George Holloway for 2,000 guineas, who stated afterwards that he had made up his mind to buy it, and was prepared to go to £4,000 for it. The picture now hangs in the Royal Holloway College, Egham.

A winter-spring stay in Paris in 1874 resulted in "The Milkmaid," the original studies being made in England. Whilst painting this, "The Widower" was maturing in his mind for the exhibition of 1876.


Study for "The Casuals."

"'The Widower,'" said Mr. Fildes, "arose out of an incident which happened in my studio when painting 'The Casuals.' I was painting in a rough-looking fellow with his child. He got tired of standing, so I suggested he should rest. He took a chair behind the screen. I went on with something else—no movement reached me, so I peeped behind the screen and there I saw the motive for 'The Widower.' The child had fallen asleep, and there was this great, rough fellow, possibly with only a copper or two in the world, caressing his child, watching it lovingly and smoothing its curls with his hand.

"'If I could but paint that,' I cried inwardly."

How Mr. Fildes succeeded may be gathered from the fact that it was "The Widower" which recommended him for his Associateship of the Academy. The model for "The Widower" was picked up on the streets—a countryman who had "come to London." Whilst painting this picture, Mr. Fildes began to build his present house, and "the model" was employed for some time in helping to

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