Salon d'Or, Homburg

It received mixed reviews - some critics preferred the repulsive realism of Doré, but Frith's work became so popular with the viewing public that a barrier was erected to keep back the crowd – an accolade rarely accorded: the previous two instances were Frith's The Derby Day in 1858, and David Wilkie's Chelsea Pensioners reading the Waterloo Dispatch in 1822.

Frith then embarked on a Hogarthian series of paintings on moral subjects, The Road to Ruin, which follows the descending path of a wealthy young gentleman who becomes embroiled in gambling and loses his fortune.

Frith had sold Salon D'Or to the art dealer Louis Victor Flatow in 1870 for £4,000, including the copyright.

Flatow had the work engraved by the printmaker Charles George Lewis, but Frith was unhappy with the quality of the resulting prints when they were published from 1876.

Victorian paintings became deeply unfashionable in the early 20th century, and it was auctioned at Christie's in 1932 for just £48 6s, sold to Walter Lowry of New York.