| The Outcast | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Richard Redgrave |
| Year | 1851 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 31 cm× 41 cm(12 in× 16 in) |
| Location | Royal Academy of Arts, London |
The Outcast is an oil on canvas painting by English artist Richard Redgrave, from 1851. It depicts a family's reaction to a daughter bearing an illegitimate child. It is held at the Royal Academy of Arts, in London. [1]
The melodramatic moral work depicts a stern patriarch of inflexible puritanical morality casting out a fallen woman and her illegitimate baby – probably his daughter and grandchild – from his "respectable" house. Despite the snow visible on the ground outside, the paterfamilias stands by an open door, gesturing angrily for her to depart. Another young woman – probably another daughter – kneels, begging him to relent, while another weeps behind. The mother of the family comforts a weeping son, while a fourth daughter looks on in confusion. An incriminating letter lies on the floor, and a biblical painting – probably Abraham casting out Hagar and Ishmael, but possibly Christ and the woman taken in adultery – hangs on the wall. The device of the incriminating letter was used to better effect in a similar context by Augustus Egg in his 1858 painting Past and Present, No. 1 . [2]
The painting is ambiguous: it could be meant as a warning to other women to avoid a similar fate, or could be intended to evoke sympathy for the plight of the young mother abandoned by her family. [3]
It was presented to the Royal Academy of Arts by Redgrave when he was elected to full membership.
