Miss Thompson’s painting, ‘Balaclava (after the charge)’, at McClure’s Picture Gallery, 1877

 

Miss Elizabeth Thompson, Balaclava, 1876, oil on canvas, Manchester Art Gallery. The painting measures 103.4 (height) by 187.5 (width) cm.

 

Miss Elizabeth Thompson’s painting was on display in James McClure and Son’s Picture Gallery, 14 Gordon Street. Admission from 10 to 5, was one shilling. From 5 to 6 it was sixpence. On the 14th of November 1877, it was announced in the Herald, page one, that the gallery had arranged with the publishers of Miss Thompson’s picture that the admission fees on the 17th would be devoted to the Blantyre Relief Fund.

 

Based on the advertisements in The Glasgow Herald, it appears that the painting was on display from around the 19th of October.

 

Elizabeth Thompson (1846-1933), subsequently Lady Butler, was a British artist who specialised in painting scenes from British military campaigns and battles, including the Crimean War and Battle of Waterloo.

 

The Blantyre Relief Fund was established following the Blantyre Mining Disaster, which happened on the 22nd of October, 1877. An explosion killed 207 miners, the youngest of whom was an 11-year-old boy. For further information, please see: www.scottishmining.co.uk