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Waiting For Relief

John Tenniel

1894

From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum

Impressionism Realism Late 19th Century

Dominant colour

Waiting For Relief is a 1894 by John Tenniel, a Impressionism work, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.

Who painted this?: John Tenniel
When & what style?: 1894 · Impressionism
Where can I see it?: Victoria and Albert Museum

About this work

Sir John Tenniel’s cartoon *Waiting For Relief* uses sharp lines to mock the 1894 economic crisis. It shows people in rags—Britain among them—lining up like beggars for poor relief. The caption makes Turkey joke that he’s been poor forever, now stuck sharing a Workhouse “Casual Ward.” Tenniel published this in *Punch* magazine, poking fun at Luke Fildes’s serious 1869 print *Houseless and Hungry*. The joke stings harder when you know real families faced hunger and job loss back then. Check out the original at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

The story of this work

Overview

Sir John Tenniel’s 1894 cartoon Waiting For Relief, published in Punch, depicts a line of European leaders—including Sultan Abdul Hamid, Tsar Alexander III, and British Prime Minister William Gladstone—waiting in a workhouse queue, parodying Luke Fildes’s earlier print Houseless and Hungry. The captioned satire comments on the economic and political crises affecting several European nations in 1894, portraying them as applicants for poor relief. The drawing reflects Tenniel’s long-standing role in shaping public opinion through Punch’s weekly cartoons.

Read the full account in the museum source.