ABSTRACT
The development of the ‘problem picture’ as a popular and effective genre was largely the work of one person: John Collier. The example of Trouble, though, also demonstrates the particular contours of Collier’s understanding of how to produce modern art, as his continuing commitment to reaching a wide public through the Royal Academy was a crucial part of his vision. Trouble shares its dark atmosphere and its narrative ambiguity with works such as William Rothenstein’s The Doll’s House of 1899, Albert Rutherston’s The Confessions of Claude of 1901, and Walter Sickert’s The Acting Manager of 1885–86. Collier used the lessons of Trouble to create what would later be called his first problem picture: A Confession. In an interview Collier gave in 1908, he describes several important considerations that motivated him when painting The Prodigal Daughter and works hard to classify the painting as a naturalist slice of modern life.
