Timeline

As painter of genre scenes, the majority of Midwood’s pictures concentrate on the humble domestic interior. Groups of figures are portrayed in idealized scenarios of family life, with children, the elderly and scenes of courtship prominent in his subject matter. The Sailor’s Tune exemplifies these trends within his work. A family, depicted from grandparents to an infant, is seated around the hearth in a simple and slightly disheveled cottage. All eyes are on the fiddler with the exception of the gentleman leaning on the pew, who seems rather more interested in the daughter of the house