King Lear and the Fool in the Storm, by William Dyce (1806-1864). King Lear and the Fool in the Storm. c.1851. Oil on canvas. 53 1/2 x 68 1/8 inches (136 x 173 cm). Collection of National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, accession no. NG 2585. Image reproduced here for the purpose of non-commercial research courtesy of the National Galleries of Scotland via Art UK. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
This was the major work that Dyce exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1851, no. 77, accompanied by this quotation from Shakespeare's King Lear Act III, scene 2: "Fool. O nuncle, court holy water in a dry house is better than this rain water out o' door. Good nuncle, in; ask thy daughters' blessing; here's a night pities neither wise men nor fools." Dyce might have done well, however, to include part of Lear's preamble to the fool's speech in order to allow viewers to better understand the context of the picture:
Lear. Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!
You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout
Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the cocks!
Jennifer Melville has explained what Dyce is trying to convey in this picture: "Dyce depicts Lear at the point where he has gone mad, having realized his mistake over condemning his dutiful daughter Cordelia and discovering the betrayal of her siblings, Goneril and Regan. He sits in a wild and stormy landscape, the storm serving as an outward manifestation of his grief and rage. Lear shouts to the winds, relating his misguided decisions. Reduced to a tragic figure, he is without his children, but instead accompanied by a grinning fool" (148).
Shakespearean subjects were very popular during the Victorian era. The Pre-Raphaelite artist best known for painting subjects from King Lear was, of course, Ford Madox Brown. Brown was obviously fascinated by Shakespeare's tragic story of King Lear and he returned to it on several occasions throughout his career. He first produced a series of pen-and-ink drawings depicting the narrative in 1843 and 1844 when he was in Paris. His first exhibited painting on this subject was Cordelia at the Bedside of Lear (Lear and Cordelia) that he exhibited at the Free Exhibition at Hyde Park in 1849. Brown was an admirer of Dyce's work and in a letter to fellow artist Lowes Dickinson of May 1851, writes of Dyce's King Lear subject then on exhibit at the Royal Academy: "Dyce has a picture which would be admirable, but for his misconception of King Lear and fool, which, in some measure, prevents it giving as much pleasure as it might; however, none but a fool, or a critic would dislike the work" (Hueffer, 78).
Lear, 1776, by John Hamilton Mortimer (1740–1779), from King Lear, Act III, Scene ii. Yale Centre for British Art (public domain).
Dyce's interpretation of Lear might have been influenced by Sir Joshua Reynold's Lear of 1783 (Melville, 148). Reynold's painting had been engraved by William Sharp, and published by John Boydell that same year of 1783, so Dyce may well have been familiar with the image. Dyce’s Lear may also have been influenced by Benjamin West’s painting (Boston Museum of Fine Arts) which was widely known through Boydell’s engraving. West, in turn, had undoubtedly been influenced by John Hamilton Mortimer’s etching from 1776, which also may have been a source for Dyce. Contemporary performances of the play may also have had an effect on Dyce’s treatment of the subject, as well as the image of William Macready as Lear [British Museum, museum no. 1900,1231.1986] who retired from the role in the same year that Dyce’s painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy. The background of Dyce's picture would have been based on sketches made en plein air. The finished landscape, painted in the studio, was not quite finished with the same degree of Pre-Raphaelite precision seen in some of his later landscapes. The figures of the king and the fool, however, were painted in meticulous detail and in brilliant colour.
Contemporary Reviews of the Picture
When King Lear and the Fool in the Storm was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1851 it received very mixed reviews. The critic of The Art Journal found the work powerful, daring, and original but disagreeable in subject and treatment: "No. 77. King Lear and the Fool in the Storm, W. Dyce, R.A. In this composition the old king attired in a loose robe, and seated upon the ground with upraised and clenched hands is pronouncing his apostrophe to the elements:
"Rumble thy belly full, and spit fire, spout rain,
Nor rain, wind, thunder, are my daughters, &c.
The fool lies before him, looking up in his face. The composition is partially closed by a small mound rising immediately beyond Lear, and the rest of the space is occupied by indications of the storm. The picture is evidently from a source of great power; it is daring and original, but inferior to works by which it has been proceeded, and by no means agreeable in treatment. Indeed, the choice of subject is not happy, and the artist has not been able to deal with it as to produce a work that any lover of Art and Shakespeare would covet" (154).
The reviewer for The Athenaeum much preferred Dyce's frescoes or religious pictures to this work:
Royal Academy – Among the numerous works which we had to notice at the Exhibition of modern works in this institution, we find that we have, curiously enough, omitted to speak of Mr. Dyce's illustration of the Heath Scene of King Lear. – For this, the artist has chosen the text which represents the outraged King apostrophizing the elements in presence of the Fool, who is of the few found faithful to his fallen fortunes. Mr. Dyce has taken a somewhat independent reading of his subject, – and one which may be questioned. He makes Lear rather the offended man than the monarch, – and gives a more literal interpretation of the Fool than the allusions distributed throughout the drama will justify. The privileges of original thinking which will by some be claimed for Mr. Dyce must necessarily be limited when the artist assumes to render the text of another. Much as we may admire the general vigorous style of this picture and its admirably conceived and executed back-ground, – the Meeting of Jacob and Rachel in last year's Exhibition rises up in our memory as something far better. From a picture like this we turn willingly to the more placid and solemn manifestations of the Artist 's mind offered in his frescoes and pictures of religious themes. – Broad and generalized views and treatment, adapted to spiritualized subjects, appear to be Mr. Dyce's forte, rather than the delineation of individual character. [640]
Many periodicals harshly criticized this picture. The Builder certainly disliked Dyce's submission, finding it positively "repulsive": "King Lear and the Fool in the Storm, by W. Dyce R.A. (77), is about as repulsive a picture as this painter's previous works were agreeable. The infatuation of what is called the pre-Raffaellite school in Mr. Dyce's picture, here borders on the vulgar and grotesque, and becomes rather referable to some of the ancient vulgar impersonations of the Flemish Breughels" (292). The Illustrated London News also disliked the work: "Then Mr. Herbert 's [J.R. Herbert] study for the Judgement of Daniel delights the eye for its sober grandeur of thought; while Mr. Dyce's Lear and the Fool offends it from an entirely misappreciation (so little looked for in Mr. Dyce) of the meaning of the poet" (383-84). The critic of The Spectator felt much the same way: "King Lear and the Fool, by Dyce, – one of those subjects which cry 'Noli me tangere' save to the elect" (427).
When reviewing Dyce's whole career in The Art Journal in 1860, James Dafforne felt Dyce's choice of subject limited the success of this submission to the Royal Academy: "In the following year [1851], he exhibited three works, King Lear and the Fool in the Storm, a picture undoubtedly of great power; but the subject, by no means an agreeable one, is such as, it may be supposed, Mr. Dyce scarcely felt at home in, and consequently his success was not so great as it otherwise would have been" (296).
Only a reviewer for The Morning Chronicle seemed wildly enthusiastic about the painting, finding it unforgettable: "The Old King is raving forth his curses in the fury of the tempest. With every nerve and muscle strung by indignation and agony, he is foaming out his wild wrath to the winds, his regal robes blowing madly about him; while the Fool – that wondrous fool – squatted on the ground, is looking into his face with a half human, half bestial expression of interest and sympathy, and awe and friendliness and wonder…. The face and the attitude of the fool are a triumph of genius. There is conception and creation in every line – the features so coarse, yet far from brutal ... the picture once seen, will not soon be forgotten."
Bibliography
Altick, Richard D. Painting from Books – Art and Literature in Britain, 1760-1900. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1985. 226-27.
Dafforne, James. "British Artists: Their Style and Character. No. LI. - William Dyce." The Art Journal. New Series VI (1860): 293-96.
"Exhibition of the Royal Academy." The Illustrated London News XVIII (10 May 1851): 383-84.
"Fine Art Gossip." The Athenaeum No. 1233 (14 June 1851): 640.
"Fine Arts. The Royal Academy Exhibition." The Spectator XXIV (3 May 1851): 427.
Hueffer, Ford Madox. Ford Madox Brown: A Record of his Life and Work. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1896.
King Lear and the Fool in the Storm. Art UK. Web. 19 December 2024.
King Lear and the Fool in the Storm. National Galleries of Scotland. Web. 19 December 2024.
Lear. Yale Centre for British Art. Web. 31 December 2024.
Melville, Jennifer. William Dyce and the Pre-Raphaelite Vision. Ed. Jennifer Melville. Aberdeen: Aberdeen City Council, 2006, cat. 38, 148-49.
Pointon, Marcia. William Dyce 1806-1864 – A Critical Biography. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1979, 123.
"The Royal Academy." The Art Journal New Series III (1 June 1851): 153-62.
"The Royal Academy." The Builder IX (10 May 1851): 292-93.
"The Royal Academy." The Morning Chronicle (3 May 1851).
Shakespeare in Western Art. Tokyo: Isetan Museum of Art, cat. 56, 116-117 & 184.
Created 19 December 2024
Last modified 31 December 2024