Naomi by Sir Samuel Luke Fildes, R. A. (1844-1927)

Naomi

Sir Samuel Luke Fildes, R. A. (1844-1927)

1914

Oil on canvas

65 x 50 cm

Guildhall Art Gallery (Accession no. 1774)

Presented by L. V. Fildes, 1967

In the Old Testament, Naomi finds herself a widow in a strange land, and has to bear the loss of both her sons as well. Head held high, she must have been a poignant but inspiring figure for those facing similar losses at the outbreak of war in 1914. Naomi will find great solace in her closeness to her daughter-in-law Ruth and her grandson Obed. Click on the picture to enlarge it; commentary continues below.

Related Material

Naomi and the Child Obed, by Simeon Solomon

Ruth and Naomi (stained glass window by Bell & Beckham)

Reproduced courtesy of the Corporation of London

Naomi features prominently in the Book of Ruth. She was much admired in Victorian times: writing in 1847, Clara Lucas Balfour described her as "eloquent, disinterested, sagacious" (128). Today she is seen in various lights, but perhaps most often as someone who "wrestles blessing from adversity" (Trible 131). Fildes, who had long been devoting himself to portrait painting, seems to show her in early widowhood at her time of worst deprivation, with shadowed eyes; but she bears herself nobly, and her beauty and strength of character shine out amid the muted tones of her loose head-shawl. It is worth remembering here that Fildes and his wife Fanny, like so many Victorians, had lost a son themselves.

Fildes' obituary in the Times makes no mention of his portraits, but in fact "[o]nly John Singer Sargent rivalled his success as a portrait painter" (Davis), and from this arresting work it is easy to see why. The portrait is included in the section on Faith in the Guildhall Art Gallery's recent rehang. — Jacqueline Banerjee.

References

Balfour, Clara Lucas. The Women of Scripture. London: Houlston and Stoneman, 1847. (Free e-book from Google.)

Davis, Janet E. "Fildes, Sir (Samuel) Luke (1843–1927), illustrator and genre and portrait painter." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Online ed. Web. 19 February 2015.

Trible, Phyllis. "Naomi." In Women in Scripture: A Dictionary of Named and Unnamed Women in the Bible, the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books, and the New Testament, ed. Carol Meyers, Toni Craven and Ross Shepard Kraemer. Michigan: Eerdmans, 2001. 130-31.

Last modified 19 February 2015