拍品专文
F.B. Barwell was a London-based artist who exhibited at the Royal Academy 1855-87, as well as showing at the British Institution and Suffolk Street. His work included portraits, landscapes and the occasional historical subject, but he is best known for his scenes of modern life. One example, Adopting a Child (RA 1857), is illustrated in Christopher Wood's Dictionary of Victorian Painters (1st. ed., 1971, p. 211; 3rd. ed., 1995, II, p. 126); another, Parting Words - Fenchurch Street Station (RA 1859) appears in Graham Reynolds, Painters of the Victorian Scene, 1953, fig.72. Barwell's best work shows Pre-Raphaelite influence. Two of his pictures, Adopting a Child and The 'London Gazette', 1854 (RA 1855), were noted with approval by Ruskin in Academy Notes. He was a close friend of Millais for many years, and contributed reminiscenes to J.G. Millais' Life of his Father (1899). Bell Scott was another friend and Barwell's portrait of Scott, painted at Penkill in 1877, was sold in these Rooms on 2 November 1990 (lot 276) and bought for the National Portrait Gallery.
The present picture was exhibited at the RA in 1861 and discussed at some length by the Art Journal, which stressed its Pre-Raphaelite tendency. 'This artist has attached himself to the new sect, and is certainly not the feeblest among the recent adherents to the Pre-Raphaelite brethren. ... The subject will, no doubt, be considered of that class which Mr. Ruskin somewhere has declared to be of the true historical style, that finds its truest development in painting things just as we see them around us. 'The Hero of the Day' is one of those patriotic volunteers whose military ardour the weather seems to take the very opportunity of attempting to damp, but who, with his companions, have enjoyed ... the rarity of a sunny day for the exercise of their skill as marksmen. The hero, who is no doubt a costermonger, from the quality of animal and style of vehicle on which his family is returning from witnessing his success, evidently carries home his prize as proud of his military superiority as the first Napoleon or Wellington would have been of conquering a kingdom. He is evidently on the very best terms with himself, ... while the wife and children, one of whom carries the prize evidently as proud of their father, as he is of his own exploits. In this respect the story is well told. There is a species of unrefined vigor about the picture, which at least arrests attention; but how much the artist has yet to achieve before he masters the refinement necessary to the production of pleasing pictures, can only be fully seen after this work had been carefully examined. ... If he will but strive to refrain from seeing nature as through a mere lens, and bring his mind to bear upon what he cannot inidividually represent, and must therefore strive, with all possible success, to generalize, the picture ... gives promise of ... far more important results from this artist in the walk which he appears to have selected.'
The comments here are typical of the grudging attitude which a conservative critic could still take to 'Pre-Raphaelite' work thirteen years after the formation of the PRB. He gives himself away by his reference to 'pleasing pictures', the very thing which the movement had been launched to counteract.
The critic of the Athenaeum (op. cit.) was more conciliatory. 'Mr Barwell has represented very well indeed a sort of volunteer's paradise - an excellent thing in its way. Everybody is happy - everybody is at ease and pleased. In execution this picture is satisfactory, as it testifies to an ardent and concientious purpose of painting from Nature in a general way, without much pretension to science or minute elaboration.' The critic of The Times (op. cit.) also thought the figures 'truthful and pleasing in expression, and free from all vulgarity or exageration'.
We are grateful to Neil Walker, Keeper of Art at the Castle Museum and Art Gallery, Nottingham, for his help in preparing this entry.
The present picture was exhibited at the RA in 1861 and discussed at some length by the Art Journal, which stressed its Pre-Raphaelite tendency. 'This artist has attached himself to the new sect, and is certainly not the feeblest among the recent adherents to the Pre-Raphaelite brethren. ... The subject will, no doubt, be considered of that class which Mr. Ruskin somewhere has declared to be of the true historical style, that finds its truest development in painting things just as we see them around us. 'The Hero of the Day' is one of those patriotic volunteers whose military ardour the weather seems to take the very opportunity of attempting to damp, but who, with his companions, have enjoyed ... the rarity of a sunny day for the exercise of their skill as marksmen. The hero, who is no doubt a costermonger, from the quality of animal and style of vehicle on which his family is returning from witnessing his success, evidently carries home his prize as proud of his military superiority as the first Napoleon or Wellington would have been of conquering a kingdom. He is evidently on the very best terms with himself, ... while the wife and children, one of whom carries the prize evidently as proud of their father, as he is of his own exploits. In this respect the story is well told. There is a species of unrefined vigor about the picture, which at least arrests attention; but how much the artist has yet to achieve before he masters the refinement necessary to the production of pleasing pictures, can only be fully seen after this work had been carefully examined. ... If he will but strive to refrain from seeing nature as through a mere lens, and bring his mind to bear upon what he cannot inidividually represent, and must therefore strive, with all possible success, to generalize, the picture ... gives promise of ... far more important results from this artist in the walk which he appears to have selected.'
The comments here are typical of the grudging attitude which a conservative critic could still take to 'Pre-Raphaelite' work thirteen years after the formation of the PRB. He gives himself away by his reference to 'pleasing pictures', the very thing which the movement had been launched to counteract.
The critic of the Athenaeum (op. cit.) was more conciliatory. 'Mr Barwell has represented very well indeed a sort of volunteer's paradise - an excellent thing in its way. Everybody is happy - everybody is at ease and pleased. In execution this picture is satisfactory, as it testifies to an ardent and concientious purpose of painting from Nature in a general way, without much pretension to science or minute elaboration.' The critic of The Times (op. cit.) also thought the figures 'truthful and pleasing in expression, and free from all vulgarity or exageration'.
We are grateful to Neil Walker, Keeper of Art at the Castle Museum and Art Gallery, Nottingham, for his help in preparing this entry.