Lot Essay
Shakespeare's As You Like It appealed strongly to the Pre-Raphaelites, inspiring works by Rossetti, Millais, Deverell and Arthur Hughes. Hughes's first essay was a triptych, Scenes from 'As You Like It' (Liverpool; repr. Burlington Magazine, 122, 1980, p.247), signed and dated 1872-3. This was followed by In the Forest of Arden (R.A. 1887; now missing), which was almost certainly based on the play; and then, ten years later, by Audrey's Toilet. In all three works Hughes seems to have wanted to capture the spirit of the play rather than represent specific incidents. The country girl Audrey leading the simple life in the Forest of Arden was an image perfectly tailored to his artistic vision.
Hughes discussed the present picture in a letter to Alice Boyd of Penkill written on 25 November 1896 (loc. cit.). Having commiserated with her on her recent illness and explained that he also had been unwell, he continued: 'But I too, am like you, beginning to see daylight again; and am able to do a little work in just the middle of the day. My painting room is a very nice little one, but it is at the far end of my garden and while unwell it is far indeed - but I am painting a subject of Audrey again in the Forest of Arden, and I think of calling it 'Audrey's Toilet' - for she stands by a little stream, arranging her red hair, floating about her bare neck - she having cast off her shepherdess smock for a wash: her feet too are bare, her sabots and smock and crook lie beside on the grass, and heather grows about in which two very young goats are having high jinks with her straw hat, one biting its edge and dislocating the rings of plait, the other jumping over it in great appreciation of the game. Audrey with a lazy smile also enjoying it. This necessitated a young live goat, and that is how I got my cold. Did you ever keep one as a pet? They are delightful little creatures in their way, and such awful sitters that they drive one mad at first until one understands them a little. I got mine a month ago from a man at Wandsworth ...'
In the same letter Hughes wrote that the picture's background was one 'I made long ago in Yorkshire', probably in the 1870s. More information is contained in an unpublished letter from Hughes to Harry Bolus, the picture's first owner, dated 2 January 1911 (University of Cape Town Library). Bolus had evidently enquired whether the animal on the right of the group in the left background was a dog or another young goat. Hughes replied: 'About the doggie kid in the background of Audrey. The creature is intended for a kid of somewhat similar character to those playing by Audrey, but perhaps a little older, and as the others about are browsing or otherwise occupied I thought this youngster should be suddenly interested in some matter away from the place he occupies, so I thought to make him looking toward that couple that are playing with Audrey's hat. His alertness and uplifted head - perhaps a thought too high - give him I see a sort of dog's attitude, but I certainly intended him for a kid.'
The picture had a mixed reception when it appeared at the Royal Academy. The Times found it a 'very odd performance', but F.G. Stephens in the Athenaeum praised its 'spirit and brightness', and two weeks later continued: 'Mr Hughes understands his Shakespeare much too well, and has too much sympathy with his subject, to paint Audrey like the blowsy wench Mr Holman Hunt, for moral purposes of his own, depicted in the act of receiving the quaint attentions of "the hireling shepherd." Mr Hughes's work is strikingly full of light, vivid as nature in its colouring, and drawn with unusual skill and care.'
We are grateful to Mr Leonard Roberts for his help in compiling this entry, and to the University of Cape Town Library and Major Greville Chester, Arthur Hughes's great-grandson, for his kind permission to quote from the unpublished letter.
Hughes discussed the present picture in a letter to Alice Boyd of Penkill written on 25 November 1896 (loc. cit.). Having commiserated with her on her recent illness and explained that he also had been unwell, he continued: 'But I too, am like you, beginning to see daylight again; and am able to do a little work in just the middle of the day. My painting room is a very nice little one, but it is at the far end of my garden and while unwell it is far indeed - but I am painting a subject of Audrey again in the Forest of Arden, and I think of calling it 'Audrey's Toilet' - for she stands by a little stream, arranging her red hair, floating about her bare neck - she having cast off her shepherdess smock for a wash: her feet too are bare, her sabots and smock and crook lie beside on the grass, and heather grows about in which two very young goats are having high jinks with her straw hat, one biting its edge and dislocating the rings of plait, the other jumping over it in great appreciation of the game. Audrey with a lazy smile also enjoying it. This necessitated a young live goat, and that is how I got my cold. Did you ever keep one as a pet? They are delightful little creatures in their way, and such awful sitters that they drive one mad at first until one understands them a little. I got mine a month ago from a man at Wandsworth ...'
In the same letter Hughes wrote that the picture's background was one 'I made long ago in Yorkshire', probably in the 1870s. More information is contained in an unpublished letter from Hughes to Harry Bolus, the picture's first owner, dated 2 January 1911 (University of Cape Town Library). Bolus had evidently enquired whether the animal on the right of the group in the left background was a dog or another young goat. Hughes replied: 'About the doggie kid in the background of Audrey. The creature is intended for a kid of somewhat similar character to those playing by Audrey, but perhaps a little older, and as the others about are browsing or otherwise occupied I thought this youngster should be suddenly interested in some matter away from the place he occupies, so I thought to make him looking toward that couple that are playing with Audrey's hat. His alertness and uplifted head - perhaps a thought too high - give him I see a sort of dog's attitude, but I certainly intended him for a kid.'
The picture had a mixed reception when it appeared at the Royal Academy. The Times found it a 'very odd performance', but F.G. Stephens in the Athenaeum praised its 'spirit and brightness', and two weeks later continued: 'Mr Hughes understands his Shakespeare much too well, and has too much sympathy with his subject, to paint Audrey like the blowsy wench Mr Holman Hunt, for moral purposes of his own, depicted in the act of receiving the quaint attentions of "the hireling shepherd." Mr Hughes's work is strikingly full of light, vivid as nature in its colouring, and drawn with unusual skill and care.'
We are grateful to Mr Leonard Roberts for his help in compiling this entry, and to the University of Cape Town Library and Major Greville Chester, Arthur Hughes's great-grandson, for his kind permission to quote from the unpublished letter.