The Guarded Bower, by Arthur Hughes (1832-1915). c.1864-66. Oil on canvas. 46 1/2 x 28 inches (118.1 x 69.8 cm), arched top. Collection of Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, accession no. K1493. Image courtesy of Bristol Museums, Galleries and Archives, reproduced via Art UK for the purpose of non-commercial academic research.
Hughes exhibited The Guarded Bower at the Royal Academy in 1866, no. 457, and then later that same year at the Manchester Autumn Exhibition, no. 63. Inscribed on the frame of the painting was "Over my head his arm he flung against the world." This quotation comes from Robert Browning's poem "Count Gismond – Aix in Provence which was published in 1845 as one of the Dramatic Romances. The theme of the poem is a vindication of a woman's innocence as she is saved from disgrace. In Browning's poem Count Grismond has chivalrously come to the defense of a young woman whose cousin, Count Gauthier, has attempted to bring dishonor upon her on her birthday and cast doubt on her virtue with an accusation that she and Gauthier had been lovers. Gismond offers to defend her honour. Her faith that the trial by combat between the two men must end in Gismond's victory and her vindication reflects the medieval atmosphere of an idealised chivalrous France. Gismond slays Gauthier in combat but before he dies Gauthier confesses his lies and the lady is exonerated. In the painting Grismond's sword blade is shown stained with blood. The scene portrayed is based on the next stanza of the poem:
Over my head his arm he flung
Against the world; and scarce I felt
His sword (that dripped by me and swung)
A little shifted in its belt:
For he began to say the while
How South our home lay many a mile.
The painting is another example of Hughes's romanticised images of an imaginary medieval past, like his Knight of the Sun or Sir Galahad. It shows the continuing influence of John Everett Millais's use of paired lovers, such as his A Huguenot, on St. Bartholomew's Day of 1852 or The Black Brunswicker of 1860. The painting is full of symbolic references. Gail-Nina Anderson and Joanne Wright point out that Gismond's awkward pose can only be explained by the necessity to symbolise his protective attitude towards the princess, and that the sword, in effect, bars entry to her leafy bower (83). The doves, seen to the lower right, symbolize love and constancy. In Greek mythology the peacock was a sacred bird to Hera, queen of the gods, and the patroness of women and marriage. Peacocks can also symbolize beauty, protection, new beginnings, and masculinity and so were entirely appropriate to include in this painting. In the foreground, shaded by tall trees, stands the poem's female narrator. She is vindicated and protected in her honour by Count Gismond who stands to her right, close behind her, with a sword in his right hand pointing downward. She looks straight at the viewer. A peacock and the doves appear to the right at the couple's feet. The bower's shelter opens to a clearing on the right, set with elegant marble fountains. The setting, costumes, and even the gothic frame of the finished painting, help to create a vision of idealized French chivalry.
Study for The Guarded Bower, c. 1864-65. Pencil on paper. 7 x 3 1/2 in. (17.5 x 9 cm) – sight. Private collection, image courtesy of the author.
There are two known studies for Hughes' painting which show the development of the final composition. The drawing illustrated here is the one closest to the final composition as compared to an earlier study, now in Tate Britain (Roberts, cat. no. 72.2, 166). In this early drawing the position of the Count and the maiden are reversed. In the later study the overall composition is already laid out. The pose of Count Gismond differs somewhat from the finished painting, however, as he is looking into the face of the maiden rather than looking downwards at the clasped hands of the couple. The Count wears a hat in the drawing, which is absent in the painting. A heart radiating light is visible in the trees above the lovers' heads in the drawing, but this was subsequently painted over by Hughes in the finished picture.
Contemporary Reviews of the Painting
The painting received mixed reviews when it was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1866, such as this one by a critic for The Gentleman's Magazine:
Two very dissimilar figure-pictures which merit attention, though not coming within previous classification, are Mr. Frith's illustration of Tristam Shandy … and Mr. A. Hughes' Guarded Bower … Mr. Hughes appears to aim at a delicate purity of character, colour, and execution, which is much too rare, and he succeeds to a certain extent, though running sometimes into the opposite fault of weak sentimentality. Judging The Guarded Bower by a common-sense standard, the knight attitudinizing over his lady-love with his drawn sword where no danger appears, is a tasteless bit of mock heroism; accepting, however, the action as symbolical, the picture will have many charms for the young and romantic. [881]
The reviewer for Victoria Magazine felt this painting was not as good as Hughes's other Royal Academy submissions Good Night and Portrait of Mrs. Amy Woolner: "In great contrast of the dull colouring of which we have spoken above, are the pictures by Mr. Arthur Hughes – the only ones this year belonging to the pure pre-Raphaelite school. Mr. Hughes has passed beyond many of the weaknesses and faults of the early manner of this school, but has fully retained the deep reverence for nature and feeling for colour essentially belonging to it…. In Mr. Hughes' The Guarded Bower(457), there are some beautiful bits of painting and colour, but on the whole we think it inferior to his other pictures. [171]
J. Beavington Atkinson, the critic for the Fine Arts Quarterly Review, merely commented: "Mr. Arthur Hughes again exhibited works in which colour dominated over form. The Guarded Bower, and Good-night, are highly wrought in harmonies which recall middle-age illuminations" (374).
F. G. Stephens writing in The Athenaeum did not like this picture, finding it stagey and sentimental, and he obviously had not read Browning's poem to understand the theme of the work:
There is a defective taste in a third picture by this artist, The Guarded Bower (457) – a lady walking with her lover in a grove of trees, where no enemy is: the motive seems to be the illustration of lines by Mr. Browning, which suggest championship for the oppressed. As no sign of oppression is presented here, and the couple are comfortably walking, an anti-climax is formed by the action of the gentleman, who displays cheap heroism by drawing his sword on an imaginary foe, and interposing it between ourselves and the lady's somewhat unsubstantial body: the result is stagey. There is ample evidence of refinement, but still more of weakness and sentimentality, in this picture. The peacock and pigeons, to which alone the drawn sword can be applicable, are painted with exquisite delicacy and tenderness; the lady's face is unfortunate in modelling and absurd in expression; there is something almost ludicrous in the extra-passivity of her manner, and the intense "propriety" of her habitually set features, while the gentleman performs his babyish heroics. Mr. Hughes has produced so many charming pictures, that we are sorry to see such puerility from his hands [675].
The reviewer for The Art Journal voiced much the same sentiments about Hughes' pictures:
Mr. Hughes does not exhibit any work so memorable as The Mower of last Academy. The three pictures, however, he this year contributes are not unfavourable examples of the artist's chromatic wrought harmonies. The Guarded Bower of a lady and her lover is a work which wins upon the heart by the beauty, sentiment, and colour we have learnt to expect from Mr. Hughes; and the composition involving no difficulties of drawing, is free from the infirmities which have often beset previous works. Yet the forms fail of the force which a strong draughtsman is accustomed to get even unconsciously. There is a lack of decision in the lines, of contrast in colour, of opposition in light or shade. And thus the elements which conduce to power are wanting. For like reasons little relief or roundness has been obtained for the figures. The lady and her lover stand absolutely flat on the canvas, and at no one point are they in relief from the dense sylvan background. The picture, as we have already said, will be esteemed expressly for its sentiment and colour. We cannot but think but a blunder has been committed in the hue chosen for the lady's sleeve. The play of a brighter colour and the sparkle of a higher light would certainly do great service. [165]
Bibliography
Anderson, Gail-Nina and Joanne Wright. Heaven on Earth. The Religion of Beauty in Late Victorian Art. Nottingham; Djanogly Art Gallery, University of Nottingham Arts Centre, 1994, cat. 35. 83.
The Guarded Bower. Art UK. 11 March 2025.
Atkinson, Joseph Beavington. "Exhibitions of the Year." The Fine Arts Quarterly Review New Series I (October, 1866): 343-74.
"Exhibition of the Royal Academy." The Gentleman's Magazine New Series I (January-June 1866): 881.
Roberts, Len. Arthur Hughes His Life and Works. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Antique Collectors' Club, 1997, cat. 72. 166.
"The Royal Academy," The Art Journal New Series V (1 June 1866): 161-72.
"The Royal Academy." The Victoria Magazine VII (June 1866): 169-72.
Stephens, Frederick George. "Fine Arts. Royal Academy," The Athenaeum No. 2012 (19 May 1866): 675-77.
Created 10 March 2025