David in the Wilderness [The Sweet Psalmist] by William Dyce (1806-1864). c.1859-60. Oil on millboard. 13 1/2 x 19 1/2 inches (34.3 x 49.5 cm). Collection of National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, accession no. NG 2409. Image reproduced here for the purpose of non-commercial research courtesy of the National Galleries of Scotland via Art UK.
This painting illustrates David's stay in the wilderness, as recorded in 1 Samuel, ch.23, v.14 onwards, and is one of a pair with Dyce's painting of Jesus's forty days in the wilderness, Man of Sorrows. The influence of the Nazarenes is again apparent, and there is the same attention to detail in the landscape of both works, to the extent that the Biblical figures seem to have been introduced into its vastness, rather than having it as a backdrop. In both cases, too, the wilderness seems to be that of the Scottish Highlands rather than that of the Holy Land. According to the gallery's commentary on the paintings, the pair of paintings "contrast youth and maturity, spring and autumn, hope and grief, the Old Testament and the New, reminding the viewer that Christ was of the lineage of David, and that David was his precursor." — image download and text by Jacqueline Banerjee.
Dyce and Biblical Typology, by Dennis T. Lanigan
Study of the Figure of David, c.1859. Pencil on primed canvas. 5 5/8 x 4 1/8 inches (14.2 x 10.5 cm). Collection of Aberdeen Archives, Gallery & Museums, object no. ABDAG003229. Image identified as being out of copyright.
The original title of this painting was The Sweet Psalmist. It became know as David in the Wilderness only after Dyce's death, when it was exhibited at the Liverpool Institute of Fine Arts in 1867, no. 59. It has also been referred to in the past as David as a Youth. The verse in 2 Samuel which provided the title is: "Now these be the last words of David. David the son of Jesse said, and the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel." This leaves no doubt that the subject of the picture is the young David shown as a shepherd with his flock standing regally on a rocky outcrop. He has a shepherd's staff held in his right hand while his left hand supports his harp. The musician David was, of course, the Old Testament Psalmist. It has been speculated that Dyce intended this as a pair to his Man of Sorrows. The two paintings are of the same medium and size and their subjects are linked, with David in the Wilderness serving as an example of typological symbolism prefiguring the coming of Christ. As the gallery's own note suggests, David thus prefigures Christ who is his direct descendent and also "King of the Jews."
As in his Man of Sorrows, Dyce has located the scene to the Scottish Highlands rather than the Holy Land, perhaps to provide the story with greater immediacy to contemporary British viewers and give them a savior to whom they could more readily relate. This is quite distinct from normal Pre-Raphaelite practice, which was for artists like William Holman Hunt and Thomas Seddon to go to the Holy Land to paint biblical pictures in their actual context.
Emily Hope Thomson feels it likely that both these paintings were conceived at about the same time during a trip the artist made to the island of Arran in 1859: "Although this is a highly finished painting produced in the studio, it may well be based on sketches and watercolour studies that Dyce made whilst on Arran, as he believed that working outside was the principal way for an artist to create a truthful depiction of nature" (172). As a later biblical work, this one differs from Dyce's earlier ones. As Allen Staley points out,
The figures are about the same in scale and are not radically different in style, but in the landscapes we need only look at the foreground rocks to see the greater elaboration of detail in the later pictures. Primary importance is given to the accumulation of minutely realized detail of rocks and blades of grass, and for this a more uniform range of tone replaces the broad contrast of light and dark in The Flight into Egypt. The focus has shifted from the ostensible subjects of the pictures to the landscapes surrounding them. There is some correspondence between the figures and their barren settings, but the pictures could stand almost as well without the figures, simply as clearly seen and precisely detailed Scottish landscapes. They are views of Highland scenery into which biblical figures seem to have strayed accidentally, and the contrast between figures and settings gives them an anachronistic appeal. [165]
Shown above is one of two preliminary drawings for the figure of David now in the collection of the Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museum. This, the second one, is very close to the final pose chosen for David.
Related Material
Bibliography
"About This Artwork.". National Galleries Scotland. Web. 15 February 2018.
David. Aberdeen Archives, Gallery & Museums. Web. 21 December 2024.
Newall, Christopher. The Pre-Raphaelites. Stockholm: Nationalmuseum, 2009, cat. 40, 169.
_____. The Pre-Raphaelites: Beauty and Rebellion. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2016, 41.
Pointon, Marcia. William Dyce 1806-1864, A Critical Biography. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1979.
Staley, Allen. The Pre-Raphaelite Landscape. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1973.
Thomson, Emily Hope. William Dyce and the Pre-Raphaelite Vision. Ed. Jennifer Melville. Aberdeen: Aberdeen City Council, 2006, cat. 48, 172-73.
Warner, Malcolm. The Pre-Raphaelites. London: Tate Gallery/Penguin Books, 1984.
Created 15 February 2018
Last modified 21 December 2024