In peril

Charles Cattermole was heavily influenced by his uncle George Cattermole, a successful watercolourist and illustrator of Sir Walter Scott. The huge impact of Scott’s historical novels was responsible, in large measure, for a reappraisal of history painting in England from about 1830. Painters also began to favour scenes inspired by minor, and very often domestic, dramas instead of the more conventional heroic episodes of bygone ages.