In the summer of 1851 the young artist already established with a reputation as a portrait painter, William Powell Frith, was among the thousands that went to Ramsgate for their holidays. It was at this time that he was looking for a new subject to paint, weary of painting costume dramas. In his memoirs he recorded his inspiration: 'I had determined to try my hand on modern life, with all the drawback of modern dress. The variety of character on Ramsgate Sands attracted me -all sorts and conditions of men and women were to be found there. Pretty groups of ladies... reading, idling, working and unconsciously forming themselves into very paintable compositions.' Most importantly the subject afforded 'the opportunity of showing an appreciation of the infinite variety of everyday life'.
Frith worked on sketches for the picture for several years, the finished canvas appearing at the Royal Academy in 1854 under the title 'Life at the Seaside - Ramsgate Sands'. Knowing that patrons found modern subjects problematic, Frith was not confident that his picture would be well received and it was turned down by at least half a dozen potential buyers before it was exhibited. The critics reacted with hostility; one described the picture as 'a tissue of vulgarity' and another as 'a piece of vulgar Cockney business unworthy of being represented even in an illustrated paper'. It was the domestic realism of the scene that offended and angered the critics but it was this quality which appealed to the public that crowded around it at the Royal Academy. The painting was voted the most popular picture of the show. It even won Royal approval when it was purchased by Queen Victoria who was beguiled by the image of a town in which she had spent significant parts of her childhood. The picture proved to be one of Frith's most successful and one of the most famous paintings of the Victorian era.
We now look upon this type of image as delightfully nostalgic but it is important to remember how modern and daring it was of Frith to paint it at the time. The painting continued to be popular through the sales of prints and as late as 1905 he painted a replica which is now on view in The Russell-Cotes Art Gallery, Bournemouth (figure 2). It was the recognisable characters and activities taking place on the beach that appealed to the Queen and the public and they still have resonance today. Here are donkey rides, a Punch and Judy show, performing animals, bathing machines and children digging in the sand. A significant detail is a gentleman with a telescope who is not looking out to sea to spot seabirds or boats on the horizon but has his attention firmly fixed on his fellow beach-goers. As Frith suggests, the beach offered Victorians an opportunity to be seen and admired, to observe and be observed, and the costumes of the figures that now seem incongruous to us demonstrate that for the 19th century visitor to the seashore it was important to be seen in your finest clothes, whether comfortable or not.