"Her eyes are with her heart and that is far away," 1875. Oil on canvas; 36 1/4 x 25 1/2 inches (92.1 x 64.7 cm). Collection of Sudley House, Liverpool, accession no. WAG196. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
This painting was painted especially for the Liverpool Autumn Exhibition in 1875, no. 106, where the prominent collector George Holt purchased it. It is one of the earliest examples of Calderon falling under the influence of Aesthetic Classicism, an influence that was to become more prominent later in his career in works such as A Roman Beauty of 1887 and Spring-Time of 1896. In this early work, "Her eyes are with her heart and that is far away," Calderon looks to be under the sway of Lawrence Alma-Tadema, whereas in later works such as Summer Berries of 1883 he appears more influenced by an artist like John William Godward.
"Her eyes are with her heart and that is far away," the title of this work, is a deliberate misquotation from Lord Byron's Childe Harold, canto 4, stanza 141. The painting shows a contemplative young woman with a far away look staring straight ahead of her. She is dressed in classical garb, leaning against a white marble pediment, situated in a classical Grecian ruin. A forest makes up the midground while the background shows a high horizon and rolling hills. When it was shown at the Liverpool Autumn Exhibition in 1875 a critic for The Art Journal praised the work: "P. H. Calderon, R.A., sends an illustration of the line – 'Her eyes are with her heart, and that is far away – representing a lovely girl, with an absent look, leaning against an ancient column that lies on the ground beside a ruin. The figure, draped in a semi-transparent robe, is exquisitely drawn, and most poetic an idea" (350).
A smaller watercolour version of this subject was shown in the watercolour exhibition at the Dudley Gallery in London in 1876, no. 312. The Art Journal had these comments on Calderon's contribution: "The first sends a classically conceived drawing of a sweet girl leaning against a stone pediment in a pensive mood, illustrative of the adapted quotation 'Her eyes are with her heart, and that is far away.' The quality of the picture consists in the nice way in which the flesh tints are felt through the light robe in which her limbs are draped" (108). The critic of The Spectator found the work unsatisfactory, however: "The picture by Calderon, entitled, "Her eyes are with her heart, and that is far away", the quotation presumably adopted from Byron's "Dying Gladiator," represents a young Greek girl, in a very unsubstantial drapery, leaning against a fallen pillar, with backdrop of deep blue mountains, and a flimsy foreground of grass and yellow flowers. The drawing, though not devoid of a certain grace peculiar to this painter, is an unsatisfactory one, the principal impression it conveys being that if the Grecian mama was to find her daughter in such attire, in such a place, she would box her ears, and put her to bed, whence she has apparently strayed,– and that it would serve her right" (209).
Bibliography
"Art. The Dudley Gallery." The Spectator XLIX (February 12, 1876): 209-10.
"General Exhibition of Water-Colour Drawings at the Dudley Gallery." The Art Journal New Series XV (1876): 108.
"Liverpool Autumn Exhibition of Pictures." The Art Journal New Series XIV (1875): 350.
Morris, Edward. Victorian & Edwardian Painting in the Walker Art Gallery and at Sudley House. London: HMSO Publications Centre, 1996, 60-61.
Created 13 July 2023