St. John Leading Home his Adopted Mother, by William Dyce, R.A. (1806-1864). c.1842-60. Oil on paper. 30 x 43 1/4 inches (76.2 x 109.9 cm). Collection of Tate Britain. Image courtesy of Tate Britain under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial licence (CC BY-NC). [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Two other versions of St. John Leading Home his Adopted Mother. Left: c.1842. Oil on board. 10 3/4 x 13 7/8 inches (27.2 x 35.2 cm). Collection of Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museums, accession no. ABDAG003200. Image courtesy of Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museums via Art UKunder the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial licence (CC BY-NC). Right: c. 1854-51. Oil on panel. 14 1/2 x 12 3/8 inches (36.8 x 31.4 cm). Brigham Young University Museum of Art. Image courtesy of Christie's, London. Right click disabled; not to be downloaded.
Controversies Regarding Dating of the Various Versions and Differences in Their Compositions
Dyce exhibited the Tate version of St. John Leading Home his Adopted Mother, showing the youthful St. John and the aged Virgin Mary departing Jesus's sepulchre at sunset, at the Royal Academy in 1860, no. 8, and then exhibited it again the following year at the Royal Scottish Academy, no. 423. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, as well as the Two Marys, are seen in the background. Dyce began this painting in 1842 but then abandoned it two years later. In 1857 he took it up again at the urging of his mother-in-law but, according to his son, the painting remained virtually the same as it had been in 1842 (Pointon 150-51). A preliminary sketch for this subject of c.1842 is in the Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museum. Another small finished study was once in the Handley-Read collection, and then later in the Forbes Collection, before being auctioned at Christie's, London, in 2003. When this small version sold at Christie's, John Christian wrote:
St John, the disciple "whom Jesus loved," who wrote the fourth Gospel … was commissioned by Christ on the cross to take care of His mother. In this deeply moving picture, so typical of Dyce in its restrained emotion and its formal clarity, the apostle conducts the Virgin home after the terrible ordeal of watching the crucifixion, he walking slowly and upright, she leaning on his arm, scarcely able to walk for grief. The picture is a small variant of the better-known work in the Tate Gallery, in which the figures move in the other direction and a landscape-shaped composition allows Christ's tomb to be shown on the right. There is also a conceptual difference; largely because the Virgin is shown more composed but in deepest mourning, the mood is at once more sombre and more restrained. Authorities disagree over the dating of the two versions. The Tate picture is generally said to have been started in 1841/2 and revised in 1851, but Marcia Pointon dates the revision to 1857 and gives 1844-60 as the overall period of gestation. Both she and the cataloguer of the Fine Art Society exhibition date the present version to the mid-1840s, but in 1963 Allen Staley wrote that it 'presumably dates from 1851, the year Dyce revised the larger picture.' What is not in doubt is that both versions betray Dyce's adherence to the Nazarene tradition and reflect his deep religious faith … Dyce's subject in the present picture finds a certain parallel in Rossetti's watercolour Mary in the House of St John, dating from 1856-8. There are of course connections. Although he was not conventionally religious, Anglo-Catholicism played a crucial part in Rossetti's imaginative development, while Dyce was a great admirer of the Pre-Raphaelites. [254-55]
Emily Hope Thomson has described the composition of the Tate version and how it differs from the early sketch in Aberdeen:
Beyond St. John and the Virgin are the figures of the two Marys, kneeling in prayer at the mouth of the tomb. Joseph of Arimathea can also be seen, carrying Christ's shroud away from the tomb. Throughout Dyce's work the figure of St. John remains a constant type. His portrayal here is especially close to his portrayal in Lamentation Over the Dead Christ; he has the same costume, deep set, heavy lidded eyes and effeminate features. Following the gaze of the two figures, our attention is drawn to the crown of thorns that Mary carries. The crown encircles the point at which the spiritual connection between them and the reason they have been brought together – through their mutual love for Christ. In the preliminary sketch for this oil the two figures are depicted in closer proximity to each other, without the crown of thorns. It serves as a powerful symbol of Christ's suffering and as a stark reminder of their loss. The thorns are echoed by those of the agave plant in the foreground, reinforcing recent events and reminding the viewer of the pain that Christ suffered. Pointon points out that the gap between the figures (which is not present in the study) increases the feeling of isolation of both figures. The space also serves as a compositional device, leading the eye up to the tip of the v-shaped slice of sky that points to the centre of the crown of thorns. [152]
Dyce had never travelled to the Holy Land so the exotic plant specimens included in the foreground were developed from studying botanical illustrations or by observing plant specimens in the greenhouse of a botanical garden.
Contemporary Reviews of the Picture
When the work was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1860 it received distinctly mixed reviews. The critic of The Art Journal noted how different in style this painting was from Dyce's more recent works:
No. 8. St. John leading his adopted Mother, W. Dyce R.A. This, we are told, was painted in 1844 and revised in 1851; it is certainly different from Mr. Dyce's works of the present time. His adjustments are generally severe, but that severity is now less felt from the very observant manner in which the accessory is filled in. The two figures rise in an open scene above a low horizon, being very forcibly brought forward by dark drapery, that of John (the tunic) being a warm green, while the mantle of Mary is of a colder hue. In both faces, Mr. Dyce eschews all tendency to prettiness, he inclines indeed somewhat to the opposite extreme, and John is rather lachrymose than profoundly sorrowful. The draperies look new, and the lower part of the disciple's dress may be original, but it is, nevertheless, objectionable. The picture, however, is of rare interest, fully sustaining the accomplished artist in the prominent position he holds among the artists not of England only, but of Europe. [162]
F. G. Stephens in The Athenaeum found this work an improvement over his earlier works painted under the influence of the Nazarenes:
Vast was the advance from Germanism to that of the next picture – St. John leading Home his Adopted Mother (8) – which we cannot better characterize than by indicating a resemblance (not that we intend to insinuate a plagiarism) existing between its style and the best masters of the early Florentine School – Fra Lippo Lippi, for example, – men who struggled to express an earnest thought by incomplete means. The severe drawing, with all its peculiarities, such as long, flat feet and fingers – the broadly massed draperies – the contrasted colour of the last, powerful in itself, but out of keeping with subordinate accessories – the minute foreground – the bright sky, and, beyond all, the firm treatment of the faces, faithful almost to portraiture, and expressions at times a little peevish – are all here, and yet added to much that Art has won since the times of these painters. Doubtless we shall hail a realistic artist before long. Meanwhile, let us take this picture as it is – thankful to call a tree a tree, and a man a man, without suspecting a windy ideality when either 'looks all and means naught.' It is early morning, after the Resurrection; the tomb, with two seated before its mouth, to the left of the picture. John leads Mary away by the hand, regarding her with an exquisitely-conveyed expression of commiseration, which is only marred by the asceticism of execution, giving a peevish look to it. Mary is the mother, past the prime of life, sorrow-stricken and worn. The bloodless and brown look of both these faces injures them greatly, and is quite antithetical in principle to the execution of nearly all the rest of the picture – the foreground being, although in low key, delicately and beautifully wrought out. There is a gleam of real dawn upon the tomb, and a purple cloud of night yet encumbers the horizon. [653]
The reviewer for The Builder praised the picture: "No. 8, St. John leading Home his adopted Mother, W. Dyce, R.A., although a little too much like a picture of a picture, is a work of great merit, growing on the spectator with lengthened observation" (289). The Illustrated London News preferred this work to Dyce's other two submissions in 1860: "St. John Leading Home his Adopted Mother (8) by the same, a picture painted in 1844, and revised an 1851, is more elevated in sentiment and more harmonious in treatment, and in every respect a gratifying work" (458).
W. M. Rossetti in The Spectator, however, compared this painting by Dyce to recent religious works by other leading contemporary artists like J. R. Herbert and J. E. Millais, and found Dyce's work wanting:
No one who has considered the recent tendencies of art can help remarking how the leading men endeavour to combine realism with sentimentalism. The works of three different painters are well calculated to illustrate this disposition – Mr. Herbert, Mr. Dyce, and Mr. Millais... Mr. Dyce is not more happy in his picture of St. John leading home his adopted Mother from the Sepulchre; here is a similar minute study of landscape detail, though with a finer sense of beauty in the sky, but the figures are conceived in a spirit of unnatural severity as if this were wanted to remove them to the holier regions. Mary carries home the crown of thorns, and we looked naturally for the golden halo round the heads, but that is not added; however, the treatment of the figures is so entirely conventional and dogmatical that, apart from the able drawing, not the painting, for in this the outline is harder and more incised than in a fresco of the largest size, while there is not the least attempt to attain the vanishing roundness of nature, we are unable to rank this picture amongst the high in art. [456]
The critic of The Saturday Review praised the work except for the colouring of the faces of the two principal figures: "St. John leading home has adopted Mother' (8) is a fine sample of Mr. Dyce's classical manner of treating sacred subjects. The figures, which are dignified and graceful, are set in a beautiful landscape, and the execution of the whole is elaborate and equally sustained. As this picture was, according to the statement in the catalogue, painted in 1844 and revised in 1851, we must conclude that all the peculiarities which it exhibits are the result of mature reflection; yet we must confess to feeling somewhat at a loss to comprehend the propriety of the colouring adopted in the countenances of the two chief figures. So uniform and negative are the tints in the flesh, the hair, the eyes, that, if the heads were cut off from the rest of the painting, they might almost pass for studies in light and shade. As the colouring of the rest of the composition is deep and glowing, the contrast thus produced, appears to us to be too strong, and to weaken the harmony of effect. Nor has Mr. Dyce been quite consistent. The flesh tints of the hands are far more lifelike than those of the countenances and this, if we are not mistaken, is never the case in nature. It is, no doubt, essential to the solemnity and elevation of style at which Mr. Dyce aims that the colouring of the faces should be of a quiet kind; but, even if it should be thought that any fresher colouring in the complexions of the St. John and the Mother of Christ would be unsuitable, there does not seem to be any necessity for such uniformity of colouring in the eyes and hair" (677).
Bibliography
"Fine Arts. The Royal Academy Exhibition." The Illustrated London News XXXVI (12 May 1860): 458.
Forbes, Christopher. "Images of Christ in the 19th Century British Paintings in the Forbes Collection." Antiques Magazine CIX, No. 6 (December 2001): 801.
Pointon, Marcia. William Dyce 1806-1864: A Critical Biography. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1979, 150-51 & 195.
Rossetti, William Michael. "Fine Arts. The Royal Academy Exhibition." The Spectator XXXIII (May 12, 1860): 456.
St. John Leading Home his Adopted Mother. Art UK. Web. 14 December 2024.
St. John Leading Home his Adopted Mother. Christie's. Web. 14 December 2024.
St. John Leading Home his Adopted Mother. Tate. Web. 14 December 2024.
Staley, Allen. "William Dyce and outdoor Naturalism." Burlington Magazine CV No. 728 (November 1963): 474.
Stephens, Frederic George. "Fine Arts. Royal Academy." The Athenaeum No. 1698 (May 12, 1860): 653-55.
The Forbes Collection of Victorian Pictures and Works of Art.London: Christies (February 19, 2003): lot 156, 252-55.
"The Royal Academy Exhibition." The Art Journal New Series VI (1 June 1860): 161-72.
"The Royal Academy of Arts." The Builder XVIII (12 May 1860): 289-90.
"The Royal Academy." The Saturday Review IX (26 May 1860): 677-78.
Thomson, Emily Hope. William Dyce and the Pre-Raphaelite Vision. Ed. Jennifer Melville. Aberdeen: Aberdeen City Council, 2006, cat. 40, 152-53.
Wehr, Kathryn. "Art Notes: A Haven for Grief in William Dyce's St. John Leading Home his Adopted Mother." Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture XXVI, No. 2 (Spring 2023): 161-64.
Created 14 December 2024