Samson and Delilah, c. late 1850s-early 1860s. Pen and brush and black ink on paper; 61/8 x 43/8 inches (15.6 x 11.1 cm). Collection of the National Gallery of Canada, accession no. 48434. Click on image to enlarge it.
This drawing of Samson entranced by Delilah is structurally similar to one of Holiday’s most important early paintings, The Burgesses of Calais, now in the Guildhall Art Gallery, London. Holiday began to make preliminary sketches for this painting in 1857. The pose of the woman in the painting is similar to Delilah, except that she is kneeling rather than sitting. Both compositions have figurative textile hangings on the walls and both have distant backgrounds visible through an open window. The painting, however, somehow lacks the emotional intensity of this equally early pen-and-ink drawing.
Exact dating of this drawing has proved problematic. The Holiday expert, the late Dr. Dennis Hadley, thought the date of the drawing “must surely be 1857 or 1858, when Holiday was 18 or 19, which explains the homage to Dante Gabriel Rossetti, as the artist was too young to have developed his own style…I suggest that around 1857 Holiday was toying with the idea of an Academy picture depicting two figures in a dramatic scene. He tried out several ideas, but eventually Calais prevailed over the idea in your small sketch” (personal communication, letter of January 1, 2011). The figure of Samson is obviously modelled on the young Henry Holiday. The key to more precisely dating this drawing is obviously trying to discover when Holiday first grew his full beard. An early drawing from the mid to late 1850s of Solomon and Holiday Paying Homage to Their Heroes by Simeon Solomon shows both young men clean shaven. This drawing must date from their time as students at the Royal Academy Schools. A slightly later Solomon drawing, lamentably also undated, and entitled We part for ever, shows Holiday by this time wearing a “goatee” while Solomon remains clean shaven. A self-portrait of Holiday as a young man, and wearing a full beard, was sold at Bonhams, Bath, in 2006 but unfortunately this drawing was also not dated.
The model for Delilah was the mixed-race woman Mrs. Fanny Eaton, wo was frequently employed by artists within the Pre-Raphaelite circle at this time, including Holiday’s close friends Solomon in 1859-60 and Albert Moore in 1860-61. Her distinctive features allowed her to portray Middle Eastern women such as Arabs or Jews. If Fanny Eaton is the model this would tend to support a dating of the Holiday drawing to c. 1859-61. Stylistically it very much resembles Solomon’s work from this period, including his Dante’s First Meeting with Beatrice, dated 1859-1863, and Babylon Hath Been a Golden Cup of 1859.
The most significant influence on this drawing, however, is Rossetti. Solomon was a frequent visitor to Rossetti’s studio from as early as 1858, but it is uncertain when Holiday first visited. Holiday, in his book Reminiscences of My Life, states that in the year 1861 “one of my greatest delights about this time was visiting Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s studio” (75). In spite of this, the works he describes remembering in particular were works that Rossetti completed much earlier. The two watercolours he mentions seeing in Rossetti’s studio were Mary in the House of Saint John of 1858 and Fra Pace of 1856. Mary in the House of Saint John was owned by Lady Trevelyan by 1858. Fra Pace was the first work purchased directly from Rossetti by William Morris and had been acquired by him by 1857. This suggests Holiday must have visited Rossetti in his studio prior to 1861. If he was visiting Rossetti’s studio by 1857-58 he likely would have seen some of Rossetti’s drawing masterpieces in pen and ink, such as Sir Launcelot in the Queen’s Chamber of 1857, which was acquired by T. E. Plint in 1859, or Mary Magdalene at the Door of Simon the Pharisee of 1858-59. Rossetti’s drawings in this style not only inspired Holiday’s drawing of Samson and Delilah but also drawings by many other members of the Pre-Raphaelite circle. The ultimate inspiration for such works, however, was the elaborate engravings of Albrecht Dürer that were so much admired by the Pre-Raphaelites.
Another clue to dating this drawing is the settle Samson reclines upon which resembles furniture by Holiday’s friend William Burges. In his Reminiscences, Holiday first mentions Burges in the year 1861 (74). Early in that year Burges had commissioned Holiday to paint a panel of Sappho and Phaon on Burges’ the “Great Bookcase”. It is likely Holiday had met Burges prior to that time, however. Solomon, for instance, had been introduced to Burges by G. P. Boyce on February 15, 1858.
Bibliography
Hadley, Dennis: Personal communication, letter dated January 1, 2011.
Holiday, Henry. Reminiscences of My Life. London: Heinemann, 1914.
Created 16 January 2023