Broken Vows, 1856. Oil on canvas; 36 x 26 3/4 inches (91.4 x 67.9 cm). Collection of the Tate Britain, reference no. NO5780. Kindly released on the Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND (3.0 Unported) licence. [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Broken Vows was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1857, no. 601, accompanied by these lines in the catalogue: "More hearts are breaking in this world of ours, etc." This is the work that first made Calderon's reputation as an artist and it remains one of his most famous paintings. A demure young woman discovers that her lover has been unfaithful by listening to a conversation while hidden behind a redbrick wall. She clutches her heart with her left hand that bears an engagement ring. The anguished expression on her face makes the state of affairs quite clear. Like many early Pre-Raphaelite paintings it contains many visual clues to the situation. The location must have once served as a trysting place for her and her disloyal lover because his initials are carved on a rail supporting the fence. A discarded necklace at her feet and the dying flowers are symbolic of the end of their relationship. Blue irises can symbolize both faith and hope. The ivy-covered wall might symbolise the young woman's former belief that their love was everlasting. In ancient Greece ivy was presented to the bride and groom on their wedding as a symbol of everlasting life, devotion, fidelity, and loyalty.
A reviewer for The Art Journal thought the subject might be open to misinterpretation: "The composition is suggested by the verse of Longfellow – 'More hearts are breaking in this world of ours,/ Than one would say.' The story is told of a lady who, being on one side of a garden paling, hears on the other side, the flattering attentions paid by her lover to a rival. From the little that we see of the two figures on the other side, the subject might be liable to misinterpretation. There is, however, nothing left to desire in the principal figure; it is unexceptionable" (174). The critic of The Athenaeum, however, was in no doubt what subject the painting represented: "Broken Vows (601), by Mr. Calderon, is a stride forward. The subject is a girl overhearing by chance, her false lover whispering to another. The moment of the heartstab, its poignancy and bitterness, are conveyed with much power (667-68).
The Illustrated London News praised, in particular, the expression on the face of the jilted young woman: "The unusual number, this year, of works in which the human figure constitutes the chief interest, compels us to mention summarily the remaining pictures in this department which we think deserving of notice. The following have all great promise, and some very high achievement: – viz, Broken Vows (601), by Mr. Calderon – the lady's fainting expression not to be surpassed" (508). The Saturday Review gave the picture faint praise only saying that it was somewhat better than some of the other submissions on a sentimental theme that same year. He certainly felt it was better than a painting by Michael Frederick Halliday but thought it borrowed heavily from Millais's The Huguenot: "Two or three pictures of the sentimental sort – which it is to be regretted that in some measure Mr. Holman Hunt has sanctioned by the Awakening Conscience – may be classed together. Broken Vows (601), by Mr. Calderon, is a young lady going to faint under an ivy-covered wall (and so far borrowed from the Huguenot) after very improperly listening to a faithless lover on the other side. All that we can say for it is that it is much better than its neighbour The Sale of a Heart (603), which, in composition, feeling, and invention, is as bad as bad can be" (521).
G. A. Storey, in his reminiscences of his friend Calderon in The Magazine of Art, recalled the genesis of this picture, its implications for his career, and its subsequent triumph. At the time that it was painted Calderon was experiencing little success with his work:
"He was in a doubtful state of mind, and felt almost that he would have to go back to engineering drawing, in which he has some little experience, or apply for some clerkship in the City. He said, however, that he would make one more effort, and would paint a picture that would decide his fate. The subject he chose was Broken Vows, probably suggested by Longfellow, a poet for whom in those days he had a great liking. And the young lady who sat for his principal figure was his future wife – even his wedding depended upon the success of this production. I remember with what interest his nearest friends watch the progress of the work, none having any doubt that the desired object would be attained by it, and that P. H. Calderon would not have to go into the City to seek employment. There was great excitement in those days among the young artists, for a change was coming over the school through the influence of Millais, Holman Hunt, and others of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. The love of Nature was ousting the love of conventionalism, and this was shown in the careful delineation of the minutest detail of leaf and flower, rock and stone, and sunlight and sun-shadows. Broken Vows was not only a subject likely to be popular, since it represented a young lady who accidentally discovers her lover to be faithless, but was painted in the new spirit; and without doubt the heart of the painter was in his work, for he not only depicted the ivy leaves, the old wall, and the grey palings with loving care, but it may be supposed that he was still more interested in his fair sitter. The picture was finished, was well received by the Academy and the public, was sold, and was engraved. [447]
Mary Cowling has explained the possible personal and social consequences to a young lady so jilted in Victorian times: "Less fortunate is the girl in Calderon's Broken Vows. It is impossible to take this sort of painting as seriously as originally intended; but it must be remembered that marriage was the only career open to most girls. The hurt and shame which attached to the girl who had been jilted were socially as well as personally damaging; and the predominance of a romantic belief in a first and only love made betrayal all the more shattering. Some girls chose to go into a 'decline' (a syndrome, which we would now call anorexia nervosa), or to remain single after such an experience" (36)
Links to Related Material
Bibliography
Cowling, Mary. Victorian Figurative Painting. Domestic Life and the Contemporary Social Scene. London: Andreas Papadakis Publisher, 2000.
"The Exhibition of the Royal Academy." The Art Journal New Series III (June 1, 1857): 165-76.
"Exhibition of the Royal Academy." The Illustrated London News XXX (May 23, 1857): 508.
"Fine Arts. Royal Academy." The Athenaeum No. 1543 (May 23, 1857): 666-68.
"The Royal Academy Exhibition." The Saturday Review III (June 6, 1857): 520-21.
Storey, G. A., A. R. A. “Philip Hermogenes Calderon, A. R. A. (1833-98).” Magazine of Art. 22 (November 1897-October 1898): 446-52. Internet Archive version of a copy in the University of Toronto Library. Web. 28 October 2014. [Complete text in the Victorian Web.]
Created 30 January 2016
:ast modified 20 July 2023