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Lot Essay
Home Again! depicts ecstatic children welcoming triumphant soldiers back from their victory in South Africa at the Relief of Mafeking in May 1900. The painting has been unseen by the public for most of this century and was formerly only known from a sepia photogravure engraved by F. Hanfstaengl and published by Thomas McLean, in 1900 in an edition of 200 Artist's proofs as well as India prints. Another version of Home Again! was used as a colour chromo lithograph calendar for Blue Cross Tea, (The British and Bennington Tea Trading Association), (fig. 1). In this, the soldiers waving from the train windows have been replaced by a mother and four children and a Blue Cross Tea label attached to the fence.
Mafikeng, formerly Mafeking, is a town in northern South Africa, in the North West Province, on the Molopo River. At the outbreak of the Boer War in 1899, the settlement was attacked by Boers but was defended by a British garrison. After a siege of seven months it was relieved in May 1900.
In 1900, there was a vogue in England for photo-engravings of paintings of the Boer War, published for example, by Henry Graves & Co, despite the setbacks which were occurring daily in South Africa. Most prints were popular with the public as long as they did not emphasise the killing and focused on the victories; thus artists avoided the subjects of Spionkop, Magersfontein and Modder River, and instead concentrated on Paerdeberg, Elandslaagte and the Relief of Ladysmith and Mafeking.
We are grateful to Terry Parker for his help in the preparation of this catalogue entry.
Mafikeng, formerly Mafeking, is a town in northern South Africa, in the North West Province, on the Molopo River. At the outbreak of the Boer War in 1899, the settlement was attacked by Boers but was defended by a British garrison. After a siege of seven months it was relieved in May 1900.
In 1900, there was a vogue in England for photo-engravings of paintings of the Boer War, published for example, by Henry Graves & Co, despite the setbacks which were occurring daily in South Africa. Most prints were popular with the public as long as they did not emphasise the killing and focused on the victories; thus artists avoided the subjects of Spionkop, Magersfontein and Modder River, and instead concentrated on Paerdeberg, Elandslaagte and the Relief of Ladysmith and Mafeking.
We are grateful to Terry Parker for his help in the preparation of this catalogue entry.