April Love

Arthur Hughes

c. 1855-56

Oil on panel

18 x 10 ½ inches (45.5 x 26.5 cm)

Collection of Andrew Lloyd-Webber

Larger version at Tate

This is likely an oil sketch for the finished composition although it could be a reduced version. This is the painting that Hughes showed at the first Pre-Raphaelite group exhibition, held at 4 Russell Place, Fitzroy Square, in 1857, no. 37. It was also the version he lent to the Exhibition of Modern British Art in America held later that same year. It was shown in New York at the National Academy of Design in October-December 1857, no. 87. [Commentary continues below. Click on the image to enlarge it, and mouse over the text for the links.]

Image and caption material originally added by George P. Landow.

When the painting was shown in New York it received a favourable notice from the critic of The Crayon: "As for April Love by the same artist, it is perfectly fascinating: this picture did not please us at first sight, but the more we looked upon it, the more we became absorbed in its simple embodiment of deep, pure, intense feeling" (343). After the New York show Hughes withdrew the three paintings he had shown and had them sent back to London rather than sending them on to Philadelphia and Boston.

This painting closely resembles the finished version although the palette is somewhat different with this one lacking the intense blues and greens of the Tate painting. The image of the male lover is more clearly delineated.

Bibliography

Roberts, Len. Arthur Hughes His Life and Works. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Antique Collectors' Club, 1997, cat. 29.5 136

"Sketchings. American Exhibition of British Art." The CrayonIV (November 1857): 343-44.

Wood, Christopher. The Pre-Raphaelites. New ed., pbk. London: Phoenix, 2000.

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Created 11 November 2021

Last modified 4 March 2025