David with his Flock. 1881. Oil on canvas. 20 1/4 x 22 1/2 inches (51.3 x 57.2 cm). Private collection. Image courtesy of the author. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
A. S. Coke is now best remembered as a member of the “Poetry Without Grammar School. As noted in his biography, his fellow member Walter Crane rated his talents as an artist highly, as did a certain author who, according to Crane, thought him the "the best of us" (88). This work however is far removed from that period: Crane has not chosen a subject from classical mythology, nor has he been influenced by early Venetian paintings. Rather, he shows the future Jewish King David as a young shepherd with his flock carrying his harp in his right hand and his staff in his left; and he has treated the landscape in a broad fashion and not with the intense detail favoured by the Pre-Raphaelites. The classical semi-nude figure of David is handled in a softer manner than the muscular Michelangelo-inspired male nudes of artists like Edward Burne-Jones, Edward Poynter, or William Blake Richmond.
The fluttering draperies bring to mind those of Guido Reni, perhaps transcribed through the influence of Frederic Leighton and the flowing draperies seen in his Daedalus and Icarus or Greek Girls Picking up Pebbles by the Sea. These paintings were shown at the Royal Academy in 1869 and 1871 respectively where Coke undoubtedly would have seen them. This is not the only work by Coke to show the influence of Leighton. Another is Coke’s painting entitled Peacocks: the use of fluttering draperies on the seated classical female figure in that composition, as well as the figure itself, may well have been influenced by Leighton, as may the painting’s rectangular format with water in the background.
Bibliography
Crane, Walter: An Artist's Reminiscences. London: Methuen & Co., 1907.
Created 15 June 2025