Waiting: an English fireside of 1854-55

This painting sets a scene in an ordinary middle-class home, cosily lit by firelight and an oil lamp. The different effects of the warm light on everyday objects in the room are delicately described by the artist. The figures, portraits of his wife Emma and their daughter Catherine, are painted with a quiet intensity which conveys a sense of the holiness of domestic life; they are shown as a modern, secular equivalent to a Madonna and Child. Begun in 1851-1852 as a simple domestic scene, the artist later altered the painting into a topical subject representing an officer’s wife awaiting his return from the Crimean War. On the table Brown added a miniature portrait of a soldier and a group of letters representing his absence.