Painting of the Day: "The Hermit" by Charles Landseer, 1841

"The Hermit"
Charles Landseer, 1841
The Victoria & Albert Museum

Painted in 1841 by the famed Charles Landseer (1799-1879), this canvas is entitled “The Hermit.”

Given to the V&A in 1859 by John Sheepshanks, the painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy the year it was painted. At that exhibition (from where the man who sold it to Sheepshanks purchased it), the painting was displayed with the following narrative poem, also called “The Hermit, which was posthumously published in 1721. It read:
Far in a wild, unknown to public view,
From youth to age a reverend hermit grew;
The moss his bed, the cave his humble cell,
His food the fruits, his drink the crystal well.
Remote from men, with God he passed the days,
Prayer all his business, all his pleasures praise.

David Lucas, the grandson of the famed engraver of the same name, hinted in 1925 that the model for this painting was his grandfather. The elder Lucas was known to have worked as a fortune teller at the Cremorne Gardens where he lived as something of a hermit. It was all an act, of course. Lucas wore a long dressing-gown and false beard rather like the subject of this painting. 

Print of the Day: Blackheath Park, 1852

Click image to enlarge.Blackheath Park
William Mulready, 1852
The Victoria & Albert Museum

Chances are, you don’t spend as much time poking around the collections of the V&A as I do. Maybe you do. If you were to do so, you’d notice that a good many of the paintings were given to the Victoria & Albert Museum by one John Sheepshanks. Sheepshanks was a hugely prolific collector of art and we owe him a debt of gratitude for his dogged dedication to preserving these masterpieces.

Sheepshanks, being a patron of the arts, enjoyed friendships with many of the greatest artists of the Victorian era. Among them was the Irish-born William Mulready (1786-1863).

Mulready created this piece in 1852, especially for Sheepshanks. The painting depicts the view across the park from the gate of John Sheepshank’s commodious home in Blackheath, South London. Sheepshanks loved this view of fields, trees and water and was especially pleased with the painting which a critic described as “a refreshing green bit of nature.”

Print of the Day: Blackheath Park, 1852

Click image to enlarge.Blackheath Park
William Mulready, 1852
The Victoria & Albert Museum

Chances are, you don’t spend as much time poking around the collections of the V&A as I do. Maybe you do. If you were to do so, you’d notice that a good many of the paintings were given to the Victoria & Albert Museum by one John Sheepshanks. Sheepshanks was a hugely prolific collector of art and we owe him a debt of gratitude for his dogged dedication to preserving these masterpieces.

Sheepshanks, being a patron of the arts, enjoyed friendships with many of the greatest artists of the Victorian era. Among them was the Irish-born William Mulready (1786-1863).

Mulready created this piece in 1852, especially for Sheepshanks. The painting depicts the view across the park from the gate of John Sheepshank’s commodious home in Blackheath, South London. Sheepshanks loved this view of fields, trees and water and was especially pleased with the painting which a critic described as “a refreshing green bit of nature.”

Painting of the Day: "The Hermit" by Charles Landseer, 1841

"The Hermit"
Charles Landseer, 1841
The Victoria & Albert Museum

Painted in 1841 by the famed Charles Landseer (1799-1879), this canvas is entitled “The Hermit.”

Given to the V&A in 1859 by John Sheepshanks, the painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy the year it was painted. At that exhibition (from where the man who sold it to Sheepshanks purchased it), the painting was displayed with the following narrative poem, also called “The Hermit, which was posthumously published in 1721. It read:

Far in a wild, unknown to public view,
From youth to age a reverend hermit grew;
The moss his bed, the cave his humble cell,
His food the fruits, his drink the crystal well.
Remote from men, with God he passed the days,
Prayer all his business, all his pleasures praise.

David Lucas, the grandson of the famed engraver of the same name, hinted in 1925 that the model for this painting was his grandfather. The elder Lucas was known to have worked as a fortune teller at the Cremorne Gardens where he lived as something of a hermit. It was all an act, of course. Lucas wore a long dressing-gown and false beard rather like the subject of this painting. 

Object of the Day, Museum Edition: Contrary Winds by Thomas Webster, 1843

Contrary Winds
Thomas Webster, 1843
The Victoria & Albert Museum

A few weeks ago a shared with you an engraving from my collection. The engraving is a reproduction of a painting, but I was unsure as to what the painting was and/or who it was by. I’ve since, accidentally, discovered the original in the collection of the V&A.

The original painting upon which the engraving was based is called, “Contrary Winds” and is the work of Thomas Webster from 1843. Typical of the time, it shows a domestic interior scene with children.

The original painting—oil on mahogany board--by Webster was purchased by collector John Sheepshanks who amassed an impressive array of canvasses, mostly of similarly sentimental scenes. According to Sheepshank’s records, preserved in the V&A when the painting was exhibited at the British Institution in 1844, “the critics noted that the game [of sailing boats in a washtub] had not yet become very animated and the whole picture was really a study of a cottage interior with admirably painted figures in rather a Dutch style.”

Thomas Webster (1800-1886) began his career as a portrait painter, but devoted the bulk of his career to small-scale genre painting. Charles Dickens was a notable fan of Webster and thought him such a good a painter of children that he commissioned him to paint scenes for his novel Nicholas Nickelby.