Curatorial notes
William Powell Frith painted ‘The Morning Call’ in England, sometime in the mid-19th century. It's an oil on canvas, depicting a young woman in domestic service. Her dress identifies her as a maid, yet Frith does not depict her at work. Instead, the woman leans casually against a doorway. How are we to read this image? The key, I think, lies in the title. Who is making the morning call, and why? The woman, pitcher in hand, is positioned as if she is about to enter or leave a room, but her gaze is directed at the viewer. In this way, Frith invites us to consider the social hierarchy of Victorian England. He makes us complicit in the act of observing this woman, and perhaps even judging her. The painting may serve to critique the way the rigid class system of the time objectified and commodified women. We can research the period through census records and the records of domestic service agencies, enabling us to better understand the social dynamics that shaped Frith's art and its original audience.