The Fortune-Teller by William Powell Frith is one of the artist’s great life-size ‘fancy’ portraits of the 1870s. The painting, that has never been shown in public, having spent its life within distinguished collections, is a rare rediscovery of the great Victorian painter. 

Throughout his career, Frith painted single-figure compositions of attractive young women, ranging from pretty servants to urbane socialites. He was drawn to single-figure paintings for many reasons. Through them he was able to advance his painting, as well as providing him with an important source of income. Multi-figure subject paintings took a large commitment of time and resources, whereas single-figures could be painted relatively quickly with one model free from the restraints of a commissioned portrait. 

As such these paintings were referred to, after the late eighteenth century genre, as ‘fancy’ pictures. Particularly prominent within this category of painting was the idea of the ‘natural beauty’ often found 

in the faces of itinerant street traders, and Frith painted many flower sellers. In The Fortune-Teller, the plaid shawl indicates she is a gypsy as the playing cards reveal her occupation, a familiar sight around the doors of the wealthier houses of London. 

The Fortune-Teller was painted in the spring and summer of 1874, alongside another painting, St Valentine’s Day, with the same model. Frith chose to include St Valentine’s Day in the Royal Academy's 1875 exhibition. The decision was probably due to the square proportions of St Valentine’s Day, giving greater variety to his submission. The Fortune-Teller was sold to Agnew on 8 August 1874. 

Whether she was a gypsy or not is difficult to be certain, but we know that he found gypsy models for figures in his Derby Day (1858) as he records the difficulties of the sittings his autobiography. It is likely, given her dress, that the model was a probably a ‘discovery’ and found as a street trader. 

With thanks to Mark Bills.