The Stonebreaker

Henry Wallis

Date: 1857

Materials: Oil on canvas

Poor Law system

The subject illustrates a familiar sight in rural areas where, under the much criticised Poor Law system, workhouse guardians frequently employed able-bodied paupers in breaking stones for the repair of parish roads in return for food and lodging.

This remarkable painting is all the more shocking for its lack of sentiment and inspired some deeply felt responses from critics of the day. A writer in the 'Daily News' for 10th May 1858 gave the following vivid commentary:

The dead stonebreaker

"We dimly distinguish the dead stonebreaker with his pauper smock-frock and corduroys and highlows [boots] partly lying on the heap of hard granite he has been toiling at through the cloudless, sultry day with insufficient nourishment; and partly toppling forward among the brambles which line the road side. Poor wretch, all his path in life has been beset with thorns! But he is at rest at last; no-one waits for, or will seek him; no-one will miss him. His pale, parchment-drawn face and low brow, tell of stolid ignorance and abject misery. He has never been poacher or housebreaker, or come to London to be refined into a swindler and pickpocket."

Carlyle honours 

The painting was first exhibited in 1858 with a quotation in the catalogue from Thomas Carlyle's 'Sartor Resartus'. Carlyle identifies two types of men whom he honours most, the first being the "toilworn craftsmen" and the second "not earthly craftsmen only, but inspired Thinker", who can be named 'Artist'.

It is possible that Wallis intended this picture to be a pendant to his earlier work 'Chatterton' (Tate Gallery) of which there is a smaller version in Birmingham.