Prince Arthur and Hubert, 1882. Oil on canvas; 79 1/4 x 49 1/2 inches (201.3 x 125.8 cm). Collection of Manchester Art Gallery, accession no. 1883.19. Image kindly made available via Art UK on the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (CC BY-NC-ND). [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
This painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1882, no. 204, and accompanied by these lines from Shakespeare in the catalogue: "O, spare mine eyes; Though to no use, but still to look on you." King John, Act IV, Scene 1. It was later exhibited at the Autumn Exhibition, Manchester, in 1883 where it was purchased for the Manchester Art Gallery.
The picture is obviously based on a scene taken from Shakespeare's King John. In this painting Yeames has forsaken his favourite Tudor and Stuart historical periods to go back to the time of King John following the death of Richard the Lionheart in 1199. In the play a messenger from King Philip of France arrives at the English court of King John and demands that he should abdicate in favour of the rightful heir to the throne, his nephew Prince Arthur. If John refuses then Philip threatens to invade England. King John instructs Arthur's jailer Hubert to bind the boy and blind him with a hot iron. Hubert, however, is so captivated by the young boy's innocence that he refuses to blind or kill him but tells Arthur that no one can know he is alive. In Yeames's painting the young Prince Arthur, clad in a white tunic to suggest his innocence, sits beside his jailer with his left hand clasped around Hubert's shoulder and his right hand clasping the jailer's right arm. Arthur looks at Hubert with an imploring expression as if begging him not to proceed with King John's order. Hubert is clad in a belted black robe with a brown hood over his head. His left arm rests upon the table while his right hand is held between his knees. His mournful downcast expression suggests he does not wish to follow the King's evil orders. A rope is lying on the floor suggesting it will be used to bind Arthur should Hubert decide to follow through with his orders. Prince Arthur was again modelled from Yeames's nephew James Lambe Yeames.
When it was exhibited at the Royal Academy The Architect commented: "Some artists who have fallen to the rear come forward again, as, for instance, Mr. Yeames, R.A., whose Prince Arthur and Hubert, in Gallery III, has intention, largeness of manner, and considerable sentiment" (278). A critic for The Art Journal felt this work was on par with Yeames's Amy Robsart: "In Prince Arthur and Hubert Mr. W. F. Yeames has treated a hackneyed subject in a new way, and has produced a picture which is not unworthy to be a pendant to his Amy Robsart in the Chantrey Collection. The scene is a pillared hall, like the chapel in the White Tower; Arthur grasps Hubert's arm and shoulder, and begs for his sight: they are both seated on a bench by a long table, a suggestive cord lies on the floor beside them, and a still more suggestive fire glows in the background" (180). The Illustrated London News far preferred Yeames's other contribution to the Royal Academy that year: "Welcome as Flowers in Spring (418), a domestic incident in an old English interior, is startlingly bright as a work by Mr. Yeames, and his cheerfulness is far more acceptable than the lugubrious and painful large work, in Room III, of 'Prince Arthur and Hubert' (204) from King John" (438).
F. G. Stephens in The Athenaeum initial comment was that the painting was "a telling and pathetic representation of one of the most pitiful of subjects" (544). In a later, much more extensive notice, he went so far as to claim it as Yeames's masterpiece:
A much larger picture is Prince Arthur and Hubert (204). It is a capital design, delineated with uncommon care, spirit, and colour, and, although somewhat trivial, is acceptable. The picture may be considered Mr. Yeames's masterpiece. The subject is that scene, which according to Shakespeare, occurred in the prison after Hubert avowed the cruel nature of his office, and pronounced the doom of the youthful prince. The figures are life size, although there was no reason for adopting so large a scale for such a work. Hubert, a truculent but not wholly unsympathetic ruffian, wears an entirely new suit of black and sits on the bench, while the boy, whose white costume of a shining material forms an obvious contrast to the dull and dark robe of his companion, clutches the unwilling executioner round the shoulders and by one arm, beseeching his mercy with a heart full of fear, which is finely rendered in his face, the quick action of his arms, and the hard-pressing fingers of both his hands. These hands are as well drawn as they were sympathetically designed. The whole of the picture has been successfully painted en bloc in a broad and effective style. Unfortunately the boy is ugly, and, greatly to the injury of a capital picture, his features are mean. [577]
Yeames's niece Mary, in her recollections of her uncle, recalled about this picture: "This is a large and intensely dramatic work, full of power and pathos, illustrating Shakespeare's tense scene between the unfortunate young Prince and his goaler. The boy prays for his eyesight to be spared: 'O spare mine eyes through of no use but still to look on you.' The faces of the two almost life-sized figures are marvellous studies of expression" (195-96).
Bibliography
"The Exhibition of the Royal Academy." The Art Journal New Series XXI (1882): 178-80.
"Painting at the Royal Academy." The Architect XXVII (6 May 1882): 278-79.
Prince Arthur and Hubert. Art UK. Web. 2 September 2023.
"The Royal Academy Exhibition." The Illustrated London News LXXX (May 6, 1882): 438.
Stephens, Frederic George. "The Royal Academy. First Notice." The Athenaeum No. 2844 (29 April 1882): 544-45.
Stephens, Frederic George. "The Royal Academy. Second Notice." The Athenaeum No. 2845 (6 May 1882): 576-78.
Stephen Smith, Mary Helen. Art and Anecdote. Recollections of William Frederick Yeames, R.A. His Life and his Friends. London: Hutchinson & Co., 1927.
Created 2 September 2023