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Ralph Hedley R.B.A.
Lay of the last minstrel
1890
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

oil on canvas
1236 x 1025 mm
SIGNED  b.l.c. R Hedley 1890

EXHIBITED

Bewick Club 8th Annual Exhibition,
Newcastle, 1890 (86)

Loan Exhibition of Works
by Ralph Hedley R.B.A.
Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle,
1938 (122)

Exhibition of paintings
by Ralph Hedley R.B.A.
Shipley Art Gallery, Gateshead,
1938-9  (23)

Ralph Hedley: Tyneside Painter,
Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle, 1990-91

PUBLIC COLLECTION
 
Shipley Art Gallery,
Gateshead, NE8 4JB
Reference TWCMS : F12343
Given by C. Scarth Moor,
Sheriff Hill, Gateshead,  1938

 

Ralph Hedley Archive reference
1890_w005

Lay of the last minstrel

This picture is Hedley’s interpretation of a character in The lay of the last minstrel, a poem by the Scottish novelist and poet, Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832).

A wandering Harper, scorn’d and poor,
He begg’d his bread from door to door,
And tuned, to please a peasant’s ear,
The harp a king had loved to hear.

The way was long, the wind was cold,
The Minstrel was infirm and old;
His wither'd cheek, and tresses gray,
Seem'd to have known a better day;
The harp, his sole remaining joy,
Was carried by an orphan boy.

In Hedley’s painting, the minstrel and the boy who carried his harp have arrived in a North East pub.