The Parting Cheer
by Henry Nelson O'Neil
National Maritime Museum
Date painted: 1861
Oil on canvas, 132 x 186 cm
Collection: National Maritime Museum
This large-scale painting, both ambitious and complex in conception, is the key mid-nineteenth century image addressing emigration. Rich in interpretative material, it focuses on the reactions of those left behind on shore. The scene is set along the Thames. Groups of figures, in a mix of gender and social class, are shown on the quayside as an emigrant ship departs.
Sailors are shown cheering from the deck of the ship and from the sides of the rigging. They wave hats and arms or stretch out to maintain the links with shore for as long as possible. Partly in shadow, a group of emigrants look out from the deck below. They are subdued in contrast to the scene around them. A steam-tug guides the emigrant ship away from land; its red funnel spewing out the dark smoke, which spreads over the scene.
In front of the picture, a crowd of relatives, friends and onlookers variously react to the departing ship. A small careworn girl holds a basket of oranges. Looking wistfully towards the departing ship, she is recognizable from the author and social reformer Henry Mayhew’s volumes, ‘London Labour and London Poor’, as itinerant and Irish. On the far left of the painting in the foreground is a woman with two small children. She may be the wife of one of the departing sailors, who, deprived of support, is left alone. Her plight is emphasized by the child’s muddy skirt, imploring eyes and the abandoned stance of the younger sleeping child. In the back of the crowd on the left, a black man waves his hat towards the departing ship. His presence suggests harmony between ethnic groups. 1861 was the year of the American Civil War and so O’Neil’s inclusion of a black man in the crowd consciously demonstrates his support for the anti-slavery movement and harmony between ethnic groups.
O’Neil’s image reflects the urban stratification of the metropolitan crowd, with middle and working classes united in a display of grief.
Image via the BBC