Griselda at the Well, by G. A. Storey R.A. (1834-1919). Left: 1860. Oil on canvas. 24 x 19 ¾ inches (61 x 50.2 cm). Private collection. Image courtesy of Christie's Images Ltd (right click disabled; not to be downloaded). Right: Image from Royal Academy Pictures (1905), p.111. Engraving. Margaux 614. Permission to reproduce this print kindly granted by eBay vendor "theonlywayto." [Click on this image to enlarge it.]
Griselda at the Well is based on Chaucer's "The Clerk's Tale" from The Canterbury Tales, derived, in turn, from the Decameron by the Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio. In "The Clerk's Tale," Walter, the Marquis of Saluzzo, finds Griselda at the well preparing to fetch water much as Christ finds the Samaritan woman at Jacob's Well in the gospel of John 4, 4-26. Despite the fact that Griselda is a humble country girl Walter chooses her to be his wife. In order to make severe demands on her patience he sets her various tests and trials to try her poverty, obedience, and chastity, including taking away her children and threatening to kill them. Still, he divorces her and sends her back to her father's cottage for many years. She endures these trials patiently without complaining and is eventually called back to be a servant before finally being restored to her status as a wife and mother. She became a symbol of patience in suffering.
In Storey's representation Griselda is seen with a ceramic pitcher about to fill it from a stone well upon which she rests her right hand. She looks to the right, perhaps spotting the Marquis of Saluzzo. The time is dawn. A large tree dominates the left midground while to the right can be seen a peasant's hut in the distance. A range of dark blue hills is in the background with a broad expanse of sky.
The painting was exhibited at The Society of British Artists in 1861, no. 314. The critic for The Art Journal did not find it a particularly realistic portrayal of Griselda: "No. 314. Griselda at the Well, G. A. Storey. This is not Griselda, either in character or in circumstance. It is a study, in the feeling of the German school, of a girl with a water pitcher; curious in its marked difference from everything around it, but nevertheless meritoriously precise in drawing and painting. The face is youthful and unsentimental" (140). The reviewer for The Spectator, however, found Storey's drawing of drapery too simplified for his tastes: "Mr. G. A. Storey is another painter who has much feeling for refined beauty. His Griselda at the Well (314) is sweet in expression, large and simple in style. Indeed, simplicity is a quality he carries somewhat to excess. In what species of drapery would Mr. Storey see so little detail as is here shown?" (361). The Saturday Review also found that influences from the German school made the work stand out from those around it in the exhibition: "Finally, Mr. Storey, in his Griselda, at the Well (314), deviates from the beaten track, and gives us a not unsuccessful imitation of the cold, ideal style of the Düsseldorf school. The variety is a relief by way of contrast" (448).
The subject was obviously one that interested Storey. He returned to it with a more accomplished painting much later in life at age seventy-one that he exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1905. Margaux has confirmed that the subject was indeed taken from Boccaccio: "To this year's Academy he contributed three important pictures, one of which, Griselda, gives us yet another example of that 'bookishness,' which is one of this artist's most prominent traits. The incident Mr. Storey depicts is derived from the last story, 'Patient Griselda,' in Boccaccio's Decameron. Griselda, a humble country maiden, has gone to the well to fetch water, and is watching the arrival of a grand nobleman – the Marquis of Saluzzo – little suspecting that he has come to ask her to be his bride" (627). When one compares this later version to the one that he had exhibited more than forty years earlier the two still retain much the same format. The later version shows Griselda full-length but her right hand is still resting on a similar well with her left hand again holding the jug she will use to draw water. She is dressed in a similar, but fancier, traditional folk costume and this time is wearing a necklace of beads. She is somewhat older and the turn of her head has been modified slightly, although she still looks to the right. A tree is again placed prominently to the left behind the well. A village is once more seen in the right midground although its distance from the well has increased. This later version was illustrated in The Windsor Magazine in 1905 (p.614).
Links to Related Material
- The Proposal (The Marquis and Griselda), by Frederic George Stephens
- Preliminary Sketch for Griselda’s First Trial of Patience by Charles West Cope
- Griselda (sculpture) by Alfred Drury
- Griselda (sculpture) by Alfred Drury
- Griselda (sculpture) by Alfred Drury
- Review of The Oxford Handbook of Victorian Medievalism, edited by Joanne Parker and Corinna Wagner
Bibliography
British & Victorian Pictures. London: Christie's South Kensington (9 May 2000), lot 243.
"Fine Arts. Society of British Artists." The Spectator XXXIV (6 April 1861): 360-61.
Margaux, Adrian. "The Art of Mr. G. A. Storey, A.R. A." The Windsor Magazine XXII (1905): 613-27.
"The Society of British Artists. "The Art Journal New Series VII (1 May 1861): 138-40.
"The Suffolk-Street and Portland Galleries." The Saturday Review XI (4 May 1861): 447-48.
Created 23 September 2023