A Summer Day in Hyde Park

Influenced by William Powell Frith's panoramic paintings, John Ritchie's picture depicts an imaginary social scene by the north-east corner of the Serpentine on a hot summer's afternoon.

Among the figures shown are, from left to right, a gentleman reading a newspaper containing a report on the Indian Mutiny, a child in a perambulator, a soldier talking to the child's mother who is sewing, a lady with a parasol, a couple from the country, a man mopping his brow, three children playing, a gentleman talking to a lady with a parasol, three poor children with bare feet, a man fishing and another pushing a rowing boat. Various activities are depicted in the park, including kite-flying, bowling a hoop and sailing a model boat.

John Ritchie was a genre painter who specialised in imaginary scenes, including 16th and 17th century costumes. Although he exhibited at the Royal Academy, the Royal Society of British Artists and the British Institution, very little is known about his life.