Tea time 1875

Maurice Poirson painted "Tea Time", an oil on panel work, sometime around the 1870s. It depicts a scene of leisure that speaks volumes about the social codes of its time. The painting invites us to consider the visual cues of class, gender, and status. A uniformed military man, likely a member of the British armed forces given the setting and details, sits beside a younger figure, possibly a student, while a woman attends to the tea service. Tea-drinking in Victorian England was a ritual laden with social significance, a signifier of refinement and a structured social occasion. Poirson's painting then, captures a moment in which these social dynamics are subtly at play. It presents a window into the rituals and routines that reinforced social norms and hierarchies. To fully understand the scene, one might delve into records of the Victorian class system, military history, and the social history of food and dining. The value of art, after all, lies not only in its aesthetic qualities but also in its ability to reflect the world that produced it.