Friday

This is one of a group of mildly satirical paintings by Sadler showing the domestic life of monks and friars which date from about 1865-90. Sadler depicts Dominican friars entertaining two Franciscans to a meal. Friday in religious life is traditionally a day of fasting, or at least the day in which no meat is eaten. Sadler’s friars are observing the letter of the law, but not its spirit, by settling down to a feast of fish. Sadler said of ‘Friday’: “I can recall no reason why I tried to paint monks, but I do remember that I never had a real monk as a model. I have studied them on the Continent, also at a small monastery in Crawley, Sussex.” Two years before painting 'Friday', Sadler completed a companion work called ‘Thursday’(Tate, London)which shows the friars sitting by the monastic fishpond catching the next day’s meal. The two paintings were clearly planned together from the outset, but ‘Friday’ became much the better known, and thanks to engravings and reproductions in books was for many years one of the most popular paintings in the Walker Art Gallery’s collection.