“My first Derby,” William Powell Frith explained, “had no interest for me as a race, but as giving me the opportunity of studying life and character.” after considerable preparation, Frith eventually painted the scene  as an amusement tinged with vulgarity. He peopled it with sordid if not immoral characters, cardsharps and scammers fleecing gullible gamblers at “thimble-rigging,” […] read more