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Alfred Reginald Thomson:
The Doctor's Waiting Room, 1959
Framed (ref: 7411)

Tags: Alfred Reginald Thomson oil Modern British Art at Mercers' Hall

Provenance: Private Collection

The Doctor’s Waiting Room, was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1959. A highly evocative image (The National Health Service was just over a decade old). reproductions of Millais Bubbles (1886) and Landseer's The Monarch of the Glen, can be seen in the background.  A variety of fashion, suitable to the various generations depicted include  include the ladies’ late 50's short waved hairstyles and bulky full winter coats,  featuring large collars. All the older ladies wear hats, but the young women on the right are bare-headed:

this reflects the rapid decline of traditional sartorial standards by the late-1950s and the emergence of a more youthful ‘teenage’ generation in Britain.

The only patients present are women, children and middle-aged and elderly men, implying that few men of working age would normally be attending the doctor’s surgery at 11am (as per the clock). The school-age boys are dressed according to the strict age/height criteria that still governed boys’ dress, in flannel shorts and ‘longs’ (long trousers). The little girl wears a casual sweater and trousers – modern, comfortable garments. The doctor’s white coat expresses the mid-20th century concern for hygiene, health and cleanliness.  The older man wears a hat – again signifying his advanced years - and a winter muffler. Both men sport moustaches, conservative facial hair that would not have been favoured by younger men at that time.

IN 1959 THE National Museum of Western Art  was established in Tokyo - to a design by Le Corbusier, replacing an earlier scheme designed by Brangwyn.

André Breton asks Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró, Enrique Tábara and Eugenio Granell to represent Spain by exhibiting some of their works in the Homage to Surrealism Exhibition celebrating the fortieth anniversary of Surrealism.

John Moores Painting Prize - Patrick Heron for "Black Painting - Red, Brown and Olive : July 1959"[1]

Knighthood  Stanley Spencer

ARTWORK produced in 1959

Allan Gwynne-Jones – Lord Beveridge in his 80th year

Barbara Hepworth – Figure (Archaean) (bronze, 7 casts)

Peter Lanyon – Lost Mine

Pablo Picasso – Le déjeuner sur l'herbe

Stanley Spencer – Self-portrait

Frank Lloyd Wright, (born 1867), George Grosz,  (born 1893), Sir Alfred Munnings,  (born 1878), Sir Jacob Epstein,  (born 1880) and Sir Stanley Spencer,  (born 1891) died in 1959