An Infant Orphan Election at the London Tavern 'Polling'

This elaborate oil sketch for a painting of the same name depicts a crowd of well-meaning voters which has congregated in a corner of the London Tavern in Bishopsgate. They have bought the right to vote for the 'needy' children of their choice in the hope that the children may enter the Infant Orphan Asylum at Wanstead.

George Elgar Hicks' s painting is organised in a horizontal frieze and, despite the commotion, the spotlight (and the viewer's attention) focuses on the plight of a young widow on the left: dressed in a black cloak, she is about to be separated from her child, who she can no longer support. Among the crowd, she alone realises the sad implications of this Victorian system. The scene shows a corner of the grand first floor room at the London Tavern in Bishopsgate in which a fund raising event is being held. Subscribers had bought the right to vote for certain orphans (middle-class fatherless children under seven) and the ones which obtained votes were allowed to enter the Infant Orphan Asylum at Wanstead. There were 1000 votes costing half a guinea each. It was a controversial policy but continued until 1947. Here are widows who cannot afford to keep their children shown canvassing the subscribers to support their children, with placards encouraging them to vote for Anne Lisle.

This is one of several works by the genre, religious and portrait painter Hicks in the Museum's collection. His contemporary genre scenes were produced at the same time as those by William Powell Frith.