The Queen of the Tournament, 1874. Oil on canvas; 55 3/4 x 44 inches (142 x 112 cm). Collection of Salford Museum and Art Gallery, accession no. 1881-1. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
This was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1874, no. 335, and again epitomises the type of historical genre piece that is characteristic of the St. John's Wood Clique. The picture portrays a Queen in a medieval hall placing a coronet upon the head of a knight who was victorious in a tournament.
At the Royal Academy exhibition of 1874 F. G. Stephens in The Athenaeum preferred Calderon's charming small picture of dozing girls entitled Half Hours with the Best Authors to this work: "A more popularly attractive picture here is The Queen of the Tournament (335), crowning the victor with a wreath as he kneels before her; she is attended by many ladies of honour, soldiers, and others. All these figures are designed with tact, and painted with undeniable spirit; but we confess we prefer the picture of the dozing girls to this work" (602). The critic of The Builder contrasted Calderon's submission to that to The Nut Brown Maid by his good friend G. D. Leslie.
Mr. Leslie's preference is obviously for tall young ladies, whilst Mr. P. H. Calderon, R.A., might be fairly suspected of a leaning the other way, judging by his Queen of the Tournament (335), and the very noble beauties who attend her. But, then, these handsome specimens of nature's crowning grace, and of valour's crowning glory, would have no patience with such goody, quiet things as figure in Mr. Leslie's conservatory, so it is as well to keep them separate and as widely apart as possible, more than by all the difference between satin and brocade from homespun and white muslin. The clash of arms, the din of contest, the shouts of victory, and groans of the vanquished, were music to gentle ladies ears that listened to troubadours' song; whilst the Clarindas, and Dorothies of a non-chivalric period would shudder and shriek at the bare thought of any such a cruel enjoyment. [430]
The reviewer for The Illustrated London News noted Calderon's predilection for historical paintings based in the fifteenth century: "Mr. Calderon has divided his attention between that romantic and picturesque fifteenth century of his early predilection, when all the 'damozels' were lovely and all the knights were handsome, and this modern time when, according to the artist, all the ladies are still charming, and all the men - well, they are literally or metaphorically nowhere! His chief work represents a beautiful and buxom Queen of the Tournament (335) standing on a dais in a tapestried hall, and placing a golden chaplet on the brow of the victor of the joust, who, clad in steel and wearing her primrose colour on his arm, kneels at her feet. Behind them are his squires, holding his lance, and casque, at around stand a gay throng of spectators" (411).
F. T. Palgrave inThe Academy contrasted this picture by Calderon with that of Henry Stacy Marks: "And yet, like Mr. Calderon's Queen of the Tournament (335), his parallel performance, the interest is rather divided between antiquity, and art, and character-rending, than impressively concentrated on any one of these elements of attraction" (554).
Bibliography
"Another Look at the Royal Academy." The Builder XXXII (May 23, 1874): 429-30.
Palgrave, Francis Turner. "The Royal Academy Exhibition." The Academy and Literature V (May 16, 1874): 554-55.
"Royal Academy Exhibition." The Illustrated London News LXIV (May 2, 1874): 411.
Stephens, Frederick George. "The Royal Academy." The Athenaeum No. 2427 (May 2, 1874): 599-602.
Created 13 July 2023