Painting of the Day: "The Penny Show," c. 1850

The Penny Show, c. 1850
The Victoria & Albert Museum
Click image to enlarge. 

Very little is known about this handsome painting. The style and materials suggest that it was rendered around 1850, and most likely by an English artist. However, the artist’s identity is unknown.


For over a century, the painting has been referred to as “The Penny Show,” due to the fact that some of the figures hold a banner which reads, “Admission One Penny.”

It is, in fact, a good representation of the sort of fare one might see at a Penny Show of the mid-Nineteenth Century. We see the bottler/barker/Master of Ceremonies at the center in front of their performance tent. We’ve got scary clowns, actors and pretty dancers and a scantily-clad bloke in a loincloth and booties who is probably some sort of “strong man” or acrobat.

Though the painting is rather rough and crude, the colors and use of light neatly reflect the sense of wriggling chaos which must have accompanied such traveling shows. I like it quite a lot. While there’s no indication of this, I like to think that there’s a Punch and Judy man rattling around with this group somewhere. After all, everything is improved by puppets.