Frederick Sandys 'The waiting time', from Churchman's Family Magazine (July 1863)
PP.357.b      18x11.5 cm

Wood-engraved by William Thomas

Sandys was one of the most interesting illustrators of this period, whose work, with all its grim intensity, was much admired by his contemporaries. They saw the direct influence of artists of the German Renaissance, such as Dürer, even down to the imitation of the old master's monogram. This extraordinary image accompanied a poem by Sarah Doudney on the hardships endured by the Lancashire weavers when supplies of raw cotton were halted by the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861.