Ruth: An Eastern Gleaner

Webbe is an interesting and mysterious figure in the Pre-Raphaelite circle. Even the spelling of his name is uncertain, 'Webb' and 'Webbe' both occurring in early records. The attention to detail found in many of his works illustrates his interest in the work of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, but the Pre-Raphaelite painter to whom Webbe was most indebted was William Holman Hunt. A number of studies of sheep suggest that he was deeply impressed by Hunt's two moralising paintings on this theme: The Hireling Shepherd (Manchester) and Strayed Sheep (Tate Gallery), exhibited respectively at the Royal Academy in 1852 and 1853. Furthermore in 1862 Webbe paid a visit to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, presumably inspired by the one that Hunt made in 1854-6 and Hunt's works which had resulted from it, The Scapegoat (Port Sunlight), exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1856 and The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple (Birmingham) shown at the German Gallery, Bond Street in 1860. It is not known how long Webbe stayed in the East, or whether he made more than one journey. He exhibited his first Eastern subject, A Shepherd of Jerusalem, at the Royal Academy in 1863, and sent them regularly until 1870, when he showed The Rain Cloud, Palestine.