Passion flowers

This beguiling picture dates from the early days of the artist’s infatuation with Mary Emma Jones, an actress known as Mary Clive, who became his model and common-law wife. They met after she appeared on stage in his native Norwich in 1862: she subsequently bore him ten children. Sandys clearly delights in her ample display of flesh, painting her in a low cut chemise and oriental robe. This exotically embroidered textile was of a type favoured by his friends, Rossetti and Whistler, whom he saw frequently at this date in London. Indeed, the composition is thoroughly Rossettian: a female half-length, indebted to the Venetian school. Echoes can be found here of Titian’s Flora of 1515 (Uffizi, Florence), especially in the concentration on the model’s abundant auburn hair.
The picture is entitled Passion Flowers, and the model is contemplating what appears to be a white begonia. The Victorian ‘language of flowers’ is now largely lost to us, but a white begonia used to signify a warning about misfortune. Passion flowers – although named after the Passion of Christ – were associated with deception as their stamens (in particular their anthers) emulated butterfly eggs thereby deterring butterflies from laying more, and their caterpillars from eating the plant. Taken in conjunction, these symbols could encourage the viewer to construct some sort of narrative around the dangers of romance. The fact that the model appears en deshabille wearing a copious amount of red silk hints at her passionate, sensual nature.