Lord, Thy Will Be Done, 1855. Oil on canvas, 10 1/8 x 18 1/4 inches (25.7 x 46.4 cm). Collection of the Yale Center for British Art, accession no. B1994.20. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
When this painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1855, no. 233, it was again ignored by the critics. It shows a young wife and mother holding her infant in her left arm and grieving for her husband who has recently died in the Crimean War. A portrait of her husband is visible hanging to the left of the mantelpiece. The letter on the floor and the crumpled newspaper support this interpretation as does the title of the painting since "Thy Will be Done, Oh Lord, Not Mine" was a common epitaph on tombstones in the Victorian period. The verse is taken from Luke, chapter 22, verse 42: “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” The religious quotation in the painting’s title obviously separates this work from merely being a straightforward genre painting. The title implies it was God’s will that her husband did not return safely from the war. The subject of this painting is similar to F. G. Stephens’ unfinished painting Mother and Child of c.1854 in the Tate Britain. In Stephens’ painting a distraught young woman leans forward clutching a letter in her right hand. The date of the painting, and the toy cavalryman among the child’s toys, again suggests her husband has been killed fighting in the Crimean War.
The young woman’s humble surroundings in Calderon’s painting suggest her working class origins while the red fabric, scissors, and thread implies that she is a seamstress. The loss of her husband would obviously have severe economic consequences for this young widow. Artists had previously decried the exploitation of underpaid seamstresses in works such as Richard Redgrave’s The Sempstress of 1846 and Anna Blunden’s "The Song of the Shirt [“For Only One Short Hour”] of 1854. Both these works were inspired by Thomas Hood’s well-known poem, “The Song of the Shirt," first published in 1843, that exposed the problems of female workers connected with garment-making.
Crimean War subjects were obviously popular at this time. The Crimean War lasted between 1854-56 and was fought by an alliance of British, French, Ottoman Turkish, and Sardinian forces against the Russians. The conflict mainly took place on the Crimean Peninsula. The most famous Pre-Raphaelite picture dealing with the Crimean War was J. E. Millais' Peace Concluded of 1856 that portrayed a wounded British officer, surrounded by his wife and children, who has been reading The Times newspaper’s account of the end of the conflict.
Created 12 July 2023