The few pictures that made Frith's reputation are of contemporary subjects.
These started, tentatively, with a picture of a servant girl (c. 1853), which was engraved with the saleable title of Sherry Sir?
Frith produced his first ambitious modern-life subject: Life at the Seaside (or Ramsgate Sands, exh. RA 1854; London, Buckingham Pal., Royal Col.)..






