Home After Victory, 1867. Oil on canvas, 48 7/8 x 89 3/8 inches (124.4 x 227.3 cm). Private collection. [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Calderon exhibited this at the Royal Academy in 1867, no. 356. It was later exhibited at the Royal Jubilee Exhibition at Manchester in 1887, no. 274. This painting was purchased from Calderon at that time by Agnew's Manchester on behalf of the well-known collector Samuel Mendel of Manley Hall, Manchester. This painting is characteristic of historical genre pictures for which The St. John's Wood Clique was well known
A critic for The Art Journal felt this work had been influenced by Flemish painting:
P.H. Calderon, A.R.A., this year, at last, gives to the Academy one of its chief attractions. Home after Victory (356) is a picture marked throughout by the painter's characteristic cleverness. The incident is the return of a soldier - a fine noble fellow - from the wars, to the home of his father, his wife, and his family. They are, of course, all brimful of joy to see him. His wife hangs on his arms and is on tiptoe of delight. The old father, with outstretched arms, as it were cries and screams for gladness. The artist has the knack of seizing action and motion at the right moment, just at the point when most may be implied or expressed. The present picture is somewhat panoramic, though not so directly processional as that of last year. This form of composition requires that the figures shall be linked together so that the continuity shall not at any point fall asunder. This difficulty the artist has met with his usual skill and cool calculation. The colour shows equal deliberation, yet the picture carries the appearance of accident or extemporaneous action in nature. The colour, like the occasion that brings the figures together, is made joyous: there has been gained by blues, yellows, and reds, a pleasant cheerfulness. Pigments are thrown together with sportive diversity, and yet are apportioned and meted out as with the certitude of science. The background assumes an unobtrusive tone, which serves to bring the composition into quiet unity. The execution and treatment seem to have fallen under Flemish influence. The servants, who stand as spectators, specially recall figures in the pictures of the school of Van Eyck. Yet Mr. Calderon has little in common with Leys [Baron Hendrik Leys]: the one goes to nature, the other is enslaved to precedent and tradition. [139]
Closer view of central group.
F. G. Stephens in The Athenaeum found this an effective picture but felt that Calderon was capable of doing better things:
"Mr. Calderon will barely support his reputation by his Home after Victory (356), a work, which, with vigour, brilliancy, and not a little roughness of execution, shows the entry of a knight into his own courtyard, and, save his helmet, just as he sprang from horseback before the drawbridge, and, uncovering his head, took his eager and very buxom wife in a pair of steel-clad arms, and, ere the gate was passed, kissed the glad matron and his delighted mother; then, sweeping through the archway, hailed his toddling gouty-footed father with a cheer, as the old man, not less gladly, upraises arms of welcome to the bold, successful warrior of his blood. A dashing, most effective picture, by means of which the scene is put before us in all its elements, from the deferential steward, who, wand in hand, stands aside at the meeting, to the baby with his nurse in the gallery above, and the entry of my lord's foot-page with the victorious lance itself. This is a little hero of a lad, and, as such, is eagerly greeted by his equals and less distinguished fellows. His self-important air is one of the comic elements of this design; its humour appears in the action of the gouty old soldier, the hail of the son to his father, and in the fervour of the wife, who, with tossing hair, clasping hands and brilliant eyes, trips hastily beside her champion, all corsletted though he be. A picture that is full of motion and brimming with vitality; so extraordinary is the former displayed that it is easy to feel as if we had swept half-breathless through the gateway, from the sun without into the shadow of the arch, and then into the sun again, where it glares in the courtyard and sparkles on steel and jewels. One might hear the rustle and flapping of my lady's robes as she trips, the ring of her exulting laughter, almost as plainly as we see the fairness of her full-blooded cheek, the sheen of her ringlets, the rosy ardours of her neck. In this picture are all the merely sensuous elements of design in painting; such exuberance suffices for itself. Of execution we have what is sufficient for the subject. It would be hypercritical to question the somewhat un-English, nay almost Hebraic cast of the knight's features, or to say that those features, which are expressive, disappoint the trained eye by their course painting. Some of the minor figures here are merely smeared on the canvas. What all the world enjoys is here; we hope, however, that this will not long suffice for Mr. Calderon. That he is capable of finer thoughts we never doubted" (628).
Closer view of the woman on the balcony, with the child-in-arms waving her rattle. Note also the military sculpture on the adjacent wall, universalising the theme.
A reviewer for The Illustrated London News found this a "delicious and original conception":
Returning to the Academy, we resume our review at the large picture, Home from Victory (356), by Mr. Calderon, to whom a medal has just been decreed at Paris as the best representative of the English school. The subject is the return of a knight, followed by squire and page, bearing lance and helmet, to the paternal castle or manor, after some battle in the fourteenth century, as appears by the costumes, whereat he shared the victory - a very original and delicious conception, realized with delightfully-appropriate spirit, vivacity, and grace of treatment. With hearts bounding with joy at his restoration, the knight has been met by wife and mother, who, clinging fondly, now accompany him along the courtyard to where the burly, gouty father stands, forgetting the support of his stick, with both hands raised in proud and joyous welcome. Relatives, retainers, fair ladies in waiting, even the very hounds, share in the general exultation and contribute to the welcome. [478]
Bibliography
"Fine Arts. Exhibition of the Royal Academy. The Illustrated London News L (May 11, 1867): 478.
Stephens, Frederic George. "Fine Arts. Royal Academy." The Athenaeum No. 2063 (May 11, 1867): 628-29.
"The Royal Academy." The Art Journal New Series VI (June 1, 1867): 137-46.
Created 13 July 2023