3-083-823 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

The Recovery of the Stolen Child, 1841. Gypsies were a common subject in Victorian lore and there is some suggestion that Allan's gypsy-pictured in the centre as she is apprehended for stealing a child-represents Sir Walter Scott's Meg Merrilies, who in turn was based on the real-life gypsy queen, Jean Gordon. In legend, if not reality, Gordon was nearly six-feet tall with striking, masculine features. The stereotype that gypsies stole children owed much to the famous abduction of the four-year-old Adam Smith, future economist and author of 'The Wealth of Nations'. Like Allan's subject, Smith was safely returned to his family by a search party. Allan's painting amalgamates all of these tales about gypsies-true and legendary.