A Girl Buying a Ballad
- Artist: Henry Walton
- Date: exhibited 1778
- Medium: Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions: support: 921 x 717 mm
- Museum: Tate Britain
- Collection record: Tate Britain website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the “A Girl Buying a Ballad” by Henry Walton. Painted in 1778, it’s a small oil on canvas that captures a quick street moment in late‑eighteenth‑century London. A fashion‑forward young woman, her purse in one hand, is mid‑step toward an elderly ballad‑seller who’s perched on a stool, holding a hat and a battered box of printed songs. Behind him, the wall is festooned with sheets, and two portraits – of General William Howe and his brother Admiral Richard – are pinned up, a subtle political wink to the controversy over the American War of Independence that had just seen the Howe brothers resign their commands.
Walton, who had studied under Johan Zoffany, painted this as a “fancy picture” – a genre scene meant to entertain yet layered with commentary. The painting was first shown at the Royal Academy in 1778, and it was later reproduced in mezzotint prints titled “The Pretty Maid Buying a Love‑Song” and “The Young Maid & The Old Sailor.” Its delicate brushwork, earth‑tone palette, and quiet intimacy make it a snapshot of everyday life that also carries a sharper edge: a reminder of how popular culture and politics were intertwined in London’s streets.
See it in person
A Girl Buying a Ballad is in the collection of Tate Britain on Millbank, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
