King Alfred in the Court of the Danes

A huge painting by Daniel Maclise at the Laing Art Gallery. The people in the painting all seem to be having a good time...except the harp player. Is he fed up with working weekends or is there something more going on?

It must have taken a while to paint so why did Maclise spend so much time and effort on this picture of the imagined past? Lots of questions so we sent a group to get some answers from Keeper of Art at the Laing, Sarah Richardson.