Sufferers from the Floods
1877
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
1877
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Sufferers from the Floods is a 1877 by John Thomson, a Impressionism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a family standing outside a shabby shop, their clothes patched and faces tired. The mother holds a baby wrapped in a thin shawl, while the father leans against the doorframe, looking worn out. This wasn’t just a flood—it was a slow disaster. The water ruined their business, and the damp left them sick for years. The photo was meant to show how even middle-class families could be pushed into poverty by one bad season. For more on how people lived in tough times, look up *england, 19th century*.
Smith and Thomson decided to photograph the once-prosperous Rowletts in front of the rag shop that they owned and lived in to show that the floods caused long-term financial losses and health problems that drove even the middle class into poverty. The woman with the baby lived in the house next door; her entire family suffered constant colds and rheumatism from the persistent dampness.
Annual tidal overflow of the Thames River flooded less prosperous areas of London, leaving behind “a trail of misery . . . and a damp, noxious, fever-breeding atmosphere.”
Read the full account in the museum source.
John Thomson painted Scottish landscapes in oil, focusing on the rugged terrain around the Trossachs and Selkirkshire.
See the richer artist pageYour cart is empty
Explore artworks →
