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Upper Class Homes

An Artist's Vision of a Victorian Home

The painting pictured below, 'A Tea Party', was created by Thomas Webster in 1862. It shows a children's tea party taking place next to an elderly woman drinking tea. 

 

A painting of children playing with a tea set in a poor Victorian home, by Thomas Webster 1862
'A Tea Party' by Thomas Webster 1862

Thomas Webster often painted countryside scenes of ordinary life. Do you think the cottages Preston workers lived in were anything like the room Preston imagines here?

 

Discussion Ideas

  • Can you describe the atmosphere in this painting?
  • What is the furniture in the room like?
  • Are there many decorations in the room?
  • What are the children doing?
  • Who do you think the old lady in the corner is?
  • Where do you think the children's parents are?
  • Do you think this is a true a picture of a Victorian home?
  • What clues can you discover about the people in the painting?
  • Do you think this shows how children from a poor household really lived?

 

Glossary

 
Atmosphere - The feeling you get from something or somewhere
Household - The group of people who live in a building together