{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O124616"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O124616/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2007BP3935/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2007BP3935/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2007BP3935","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006BH7702","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006BD6353","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AM1947","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O124616/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O124616","accessionNumber":"FA.147[O]","objectType":"Oil painting","titles":[{"title":"A Sailing Match","type":"assigned by artist"},{"title":"The Sailing Match - A Woman Urges on an Unwilling Schoolboy","type":""}],"summaryDescription":"This painting is a classic example of Mulready's interest in contrasting the value of formal education wtih the process of learning through play.  A wealthy boy on his way to school - indeed, Mulready subtitled the picture 'creeping like a snail unwillingly to school' (Shakespeare, <i>As You Like It</i>) - wistfully gazes at a group of poor children who attempt to blow their toy boat along with a roughly improvised roll of paper as he is led away from temptation by his mother or nurse.  Such pictorial analogies have their root in the moralising genre scenes of 17th-century Dutch painting.","physicalDescription":"An oil painting showing three boys and a dog crouching on the bank of a pond, trying to blow a toy boat across the water.  Another boy, richly dressed, passes by and appears to want to join them, but is being led away by a woman (his mother or nurse).","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Mulready, William","id":"A8680"},"association":{"text":"painter (artist)","id":"AAT25136"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"oil paint","id":"AAT15050"},{"text":"panel","id":"AAT14657"}],"techniques":[{"text":"oil painting","id":"AAT178684"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Oil on panel","categories":[{"text":"Paintings","id":"THES48917"}],"styles":[{"text":"British School","id":"x30967"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2007BP3935","2006BH7702","2006BD6353","2006AM1947"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"82 (VA)","id":"THES49712"},"free":"","case":"WE","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"oil paintings","id":"AAT33799"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Great Britain","id":"x32019"},"association":{"text":"painted","id":"x30138"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1831","earliest":"1826-01-01","latest":"1835-12-31"},"association":{"text":"painted","id":"x30138"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given by John Sheepshanks, 1857","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"35.3","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"estimate","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"32.1","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"estimate","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"54.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"frame dimensions","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"48.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"frame dimensions","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Dimensions taken from <i>Catalogue of British Oil Paintings 1820-1860</i>, Ronald Parkinson, Victoria and Albert Museum, London: HMSO, 1990","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Given by John Sheepshanks, 1857.  This is a reduced replica of a painting exhibited in 1831 (present whereabouts unknown).","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Oil painting entitled 'A Sailing Match' by William Mulready.  Great Britain, ca. 1831.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"K. Heleniak, <i>William Mulready</i>, 1980, pp. 129 and 137"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"<i>Catalogue of British Oil Paintings 1820-1860</i>, Ronald Parkinson, Victoria and Albert Museum, London: HMSO, 1990, p. 206"},{"reference":{"text":"<i>A catalogue of the pictures, drawings, sketches, etc., of the late William Mulready, Esq., R.A. (1786-1863.).</i>, London : Printed by George Edward Eyre and William Spottiswoode for H.M.S.O., 1864","id":"AUTH358020"},"details":"no.72","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Pointon, Marcia <i>Mulready</i>, London : Victoria and Albert Museum, 1986","id":"AUTH358021"},"details":"no.111","free":""}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"children","id":"x31526"}],"contentConcepts":[{"text":"play","id":"x30250"}],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["FA.147[O]"],"accessionNumberNum":"147","accessionNumberPrefix":"FA","accessionYear":null,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-05-12","recordCreationDate":"2006-06-01","availableToBook":false}}