The Child Jesus, by James Collinson (1825-1881). Etching in black on off-white paper; signed and dated in the plate James Collinson 1850, lower left; at the base of the etching in gothic script is Ex ore infantium et lactentium perfecisti lauden [out of the mouths of babes and sucklings perfect praise]; 5 5/8 x 9 in. (14.3 x 22.8 cm) – sheet size; 4 3/4 x 7 1/4 in. (12.0 x 18.5 cm) – image size. Image courtesy of the Tate Britain, reference no. NO2421, reproduced for academic usage.
This etching was produced for the second issue of The Germ in February 1850 to accompany Collinson's verse narrative poem, "The Child Jesus. A Record Typical of the Five Sorrowful Mysteries," taken from Psalm 8.2 of the Vulgate text of the Bible. It is the only instance in The Germ where a literary work was illustrated by its author. According to George Landow this poem was the single most elaborate use of typological symbolism in poetry by the artists associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood during its early years (Landow 141; and see Landow). The poem is based on the Five Sorrowful Mysteries of the Roman Catholic Rosary. Each of the five sections of the poem narrates an imagined event from Christ's childhood, which prefigures the later Passion and Crucifixion. Wood had these comments on Collinson's contribution to The Germ: "James Collinson, whose somewhat desultory but genuinely imaginative lines, "The Child Jesus: a record typical of the five sorrowful mysteries," together with an etching by the same hand, illustrate very markedly the peculiar phase of religious symbolism, combined with half-ascetic, half-aesthetic melancholy, upon which the Pre-Raphaelites were entering at this period" (74).
The image for the etching is taken from the third section of the poem, "The Crowning with Thorns."
Three children, and then two, with each an arm
Around the other, throwing up their songs,
Such happy songs as only children know,
Came by the place where Jesus sat alone.
But, when they saw his thoughtful face, they ceased,
And, looking at each other, drew near him;
While one who had upon his head a wreath
Of hawthorn flowers, and in his hand a reed,
Put these both from him, saying, "Here is one
Whom you shall all prefer instead of me
To be our king;" and then he placed the wreath
On Jesus' brow, who meekly bowed his head.
And, when he took the reed, the children knelt,
And cast their simple offerings at his feet:
And, almost wondering why they loved him so,
Kissed him with reverence, promising to yield
Grave fealty. And Jesus did return
Their childish salutations;
Shortly after completion of this etching Collinson resigned from the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in May 1850 and he reconverted to Roman Catholicism. The typological symbolism inherent in this poem, composed when Collinson was still an Anglican, shows how close the High Church Anglican Tractarian Movement was to Catholicism at this particular time period. A full discussion of the typological references in the poem and the etching can be found in D. M. R. Bentley's excellent article (22-25).
Holman Hunt apparently helped Collinson with his etching technique (Hunt 193). The progress of the etching can be followed in W. M. Rossetti's diary of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Rossetti mentions on Saturday 12 January 1850: "Collinson has quite finished the design for his etching, and will begin it on the copper on Monday" (42). On Wednesday 16 January, Rossetti writes: "Collinson was at his studio all day, working on the etching, of which he did about a quarter" (42). By Friday 18 January, Rossetti mentions that Collinson has very nearly finished etching his design on copper. On Tuesday 22 January, Rossetti writes: "Collinson was also there, and brought the first proof of his etching. This is very imperfect thro' some defect in the biting in, - so much so that he felt discouraged at first; but Hunt says it can certainly be remedied" (45). On Monday 28 January, the fourth impression of the etching was eventually judged satisfactory when Rossetti writes: "Collinson saw Gabriel, and showed him the new impression (the fourth) of his etching, which is a great advance on all the preceding ones" (48). It was subsequently published in the second issue of The Germ on 31 January 1850.
The etching features six children in addition to Jesus in the early angular awkward style of Pre-Raphaelite drawing from the early 1850s. Collinson has surprisingly shown Nazareth as being on the seashore, which it obviously wasn't. In the right background can be seen the buildings of a typical village of the Holy Land. Five cypress trees can be seen on the headland, echoed by five olive trees beneath them, which surely alludes to the five sorrowful mysteries (Newman 49) The large shells in the foreground are symbolic of pilgrimage. The young Jesus has a crown of hawthorn flowers on his head surrounded by a cruciform halo. This garland was a gift from John the Baptist and is symbolic of Christ's later crown of thorns worn at his crucifixion. The standing boy with a halo, who is undoubtedly intended to represent John the Baptist, hands Jesus a cross with a banner reading in gothic script "ecce Angus Dei" [behold the lamb of God]. One young boy kneels reverently at Jesus's feet, his left hand holding Jesus's right hand. A girl holds up a baby for Jesus to bless. Two other children kneel in the background holding flowers, which likely also have symbolic meaning. Bentley has pointed out that "the landscape in addition to the figures and their accouterments" are involved in the typological symbolism:
On the slope of the hill whose crest is level with the cross-member of the cruciform 'reed' that John is handing to Jesus are three series of five trees and bushes that prefigure the three Sorrowful Mysteries that preceded the Carrying of the Cross and the Crucifixion. At the foot of the hill are two of the three (and, therefore, Trinitarian) "cottages" that are described in the poem as "overlook[ing] the sea / ... eastward of Nazareth." [24]
The Ecclesiologist in their review of Art and Poetry praised Collinson's etching for The Germ: "Each number contains an illustration - We like Mr. Collinson's Ex ore infantium et lactentium perfecisti lauden very much; - it is simple and devotional: the remainder are far too angular" (47).
W. M. Rossetti, in his Preface to the 1901 Stock edition of The Germ, considered Collinson's poem and etching worthy contributions despite the artist's lack of experience in both areas:
"The Child Jesus, a Record Typical of the Five Sorrowful Mysteries." Collinson, as I have already said, was hardly a writing man, and I question whether he had produced a line of verse prior to undertaking this by no means trivial task. The poem, like the etching which he did for it, is deficient in native strength, nor is there much invention in the symbolical incidents which make it up: but its general level, and several of its lines and passages, always appeared to me, and still appear, highly laudable, and far better than could have been reckoned for. Here and there a telling line was supplied by Dante Rossetti, Millais, when shortly afterwards in Oxford, found that the poem had made some sensation there. It is singular that Collinson should, throughout his composition, speak of Nazareth as being on the sea-shore - which is the reverse of the fact. The Praeraphaelites, with all their love of exact truth to nature, were a little arbitrary in applying the principle; and Collinson seems to have regarded it as quite superfluous to look into a map, and see whether Nazareth was near the sea or not. Or possibly he trusted to Dante Rossetti's poem "Ave," in which likewise Nazareth is a marine town. My brother advisedly stuck to this in 1869, when I pointed out the error to him: he replied, "I fear the sea must remain at Nazareth: you know an old painter would have made no bones if he wanted it for his background." I cannot say whether Collinson, if put to it, would have pleaded the like arbitrary and almost burlesque excuse: at any rate he made the blunder, and in a much more detailed shape than in Rossetti's lyric. "The Child Jesus" is, I think, the only poem of any importance that he ever wrote.
Bibliography
"Art and Poetry." The Ecclesiologist XI: New Series Vol. VIII, (June 1850): 47.
Bentley, D. M. R.: "The Principal Pre-Raphaelite Pictures of James Collinson," Victorian Review, Vol. 30, No. 1, 2004, 21-43.
The Child Jesus. Tate. Web. 2 March 2024.
Hunt, William Holman: Pre-Raphaelitism and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. London: MacMillan & Co. Ltd., Vol. I, 1905.
Landow, George P.: William Holman Hunt and Typological Symbolism. London and New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979. 141.
Newman, Helen D. James Collinson (aka "The Dormouse") . Foulsham: Reuben Books, 2016. 49.
Parkinson, Ronald. "James Collinson." in Leslie Parris Ed. Pre-Raphaelite Papers. London: Tate Gallery Publications 1984. 67 & 71-72.
Rossetti, William Michael. Preface to The Germ: Thoughts Towards Nature in Poetry, Literature and Art. London: Elliott Stock, 1901.
Rossetti, William Michael. The P.R. B. Journal. William Michael Rossetti's Diary of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood 1849-1853. William E. Fredeman Ed. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1975.
Suriano, Gregory R. The Pre-Raphaelite Illustrators. Newcastle: Oak Knoll Press, 2000. 69.
Wood, Esther: Dante Rossetti and the Pre-Raphaelite Movement. London: Sampson Low, Marston and Company Ltd., 1894.
Created 2 March 2024