ABSTRACT
William Powell Frith experienced the extraordinary rise in the popularity and price of contemporary British paintings in the second half of the nineteenth century. The versions Frith made of his largest paintings vary considerably in scale. While some are true replicas, commissioned by patrons keen to have a copy of a celebrated work, others are initial studies or sketches, often worked up into more finished paintings for sale at a later date. Frith’s account with Roberson clarifies where these small panels should be located in the artist’s creative process through his gradual accumulation of the materials he needed to plan and execute the series titled The Race for Wealth. Frith made replicas in various ways. Some were straightforward near-facsimiles, either commissioned at the time the original was being painted, or many years afterwards. Frith’s motivation for replicating his own works changed over the course of his career as he had to adapt to alterations in market conditions.
