The Slave. 1877. Tempera; 25 ¼ x 20½ inches (64 x 52 cm). Private collection. Click on image to enlarge it
This work appears not to have been exhibited. The model for The Slave might possibly be Clifford himself, which makes this an interesting picture. A semi-naked man with chains around his ankles is seated, shielding his eyes with his raised right arm, and watching the flight of a bird that he has just released from a cage. The slave is undoubtedly longing for the same sort of freedom from bondage. It is possible the bird represents the soul being set free and travelling heavenward or it could possibly symbolize hope. Knowing that Clifford was such a deeply religious man this picture likely has an underlying spiritual meaning. The chains that bind the slave might be symbolic of the moral, psychological, and physical bonds that an earth-bound soul must struggle to free itself from before the next phase of spiritual evolution can begin. This picture is reminiscent of the spiritualist works that Evelyn De Morgan would later exhibit.
The dreamy landscape background of The Slave is typical of Clifford’s approach to this subject which led Philip Burne-Jones to write of him in a letter of October 17, 1907: "I think perhaps he is to be seen at his very best in his landscapes, into which he always infused an atmosphere of romance and beauty as attractive as it was peculiarly individual. I know no other man's work quite like it" (Cholmeley, 47). His misty treatment of vegetation in the midground is particularly characteristic of his work. If this work is indeed on tempera this would make him, along with J. R. S. Stanhope, one of the earliest artists associated with the tempera revival in late nineteenth-century Britain.
Bibliography
Cholmeley, Mrs. R. Edward Clifford. Cowley, Oxford: Church Army Press, 1907.
Last modified 3 February 2023