Ramsgate Sands, also known as Life at the Seaside, is an oil-on-canvas painting by the English artist William Powell Frith, who worked on it from 1851 to 1854.

Frith made a series of similar pictures, showing groups of people in contemporary scenes, including The Derby Day of 1858, The Railway Station of 1862, and Private View at the Royal Academy of 1883.

He became a member of the Royal Academy in 1853, and the painting was based on studies made by Frith during a holiday in Ramsgate in September 1851, where he was inspired by the variety of everyday life.

[1] Frith takes advantage of the location to paint people of different social classes in contemporary modern dress.

Unusually, to modern eyes, the characters are wearing their usual clothes on the beach, including crinolines for the women and waistcoats for the men, alongside more recognisable seaside images of sandcastles, donkey rides, and a Punch and Judy show.