Christabel, by William Dyce (1806-1864). c.1855. Oil on panel. 21 1/4 x 17 5/8 inches (54 x 44.8 cm). Collection of the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow, accession no. 3221. Image courtesy of Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, via Art UK, under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial licence (CC BY-NC). [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Christabel, a painting with a "Madonna-like" heroine, was shown at the Royal Academy in 1855, no. 181, accompanied by these lines in the catalogue from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem "Christabel":
It was a lovely sight to see
The lady Christabel, when she
Was praying at the old oak tree,
* * *
Her slender palms together prest,
Heaving sometimes on her breast;
Her face resigned to bliss or bale —
Her face, oh call it fair not pale....
Although the painting dates from 1855 Marcia Pointon feels there is evidence that suggests the genesis of this idea dates much earlier, to a pencil sketch dated 1849. Despite obvious differences between the two works, the drawing shows a young girl with downcast eyes, her hair parted in the middle, and a gown with a decorated neck band. Her halo becomes in Christabel a coronet of roses (138-39).
The painting, which is in the collection of the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow, is described on the Glasgow gallery's website as an "oval-shaped painting by Scottish artist William Dyce" showing "a young woman wearing a jewel-lined green dress and a white satin cloak, held by a jewelled clasp, with a garland of white roses in her hair, standing beside an oak tree. Her head is bent and her hands are clasped in prayer." Explaining its origin, the gallery note adds that the poem was "based on the medieval ballad form," and
tells the story of Christabel's encounter with a stranger called Geraldine, who claims to have been abducted from her home by a band of men on horseback. Dyce depicts the part of the story just before Geraldine makes her appearance, Christabel having gone into the woods to pray…. The poem has a mysterious dream-like quality, with a sinister element that is not conveyed in the serene atmosphere of the painting…. Inspired by early Italian art, Dyce was an important precursor for the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. However, he arrived at his style of painting quite independently by making several research trips to Italy where he came into contact with the German Nazarene painters in Rome.... Dyce was probably introduced to them by Baron Bunsen, Secretary to the Prussian Legation in Rome, who shared Dyce's interest in theology, art and early music. It was Dyce who first drew art critic John Ruskin's attention to the merits of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He shared many similar concerns with the Pre-Raphaelites including: a minute detailing of nature, evident here in the depiction of the tree trunk, leaves and ivy; carefully researched historical costume and accessories; an archaic stylisation, notably a lack of modelling and use of bright colours; and a preference for romantic literary subjects.
The Influence of Early Italian Art as Noted in Contemporary Reviews of the Picture
The critic of The Art Journal felt this work was influenced by the early Renaissance masters: "In this impersonation of the Lady Christabel, the artist seems rather to have inclined to the Madonnas of Nuremberg, or those of the early Italian school, than to the mystic conception of Coleridge. She is represented with her palms joined, and a portion of the gnarled trunk is seen on her right. The face is moulded in such a manner as studiously to avoid allusion to the Greek remains from which the Italian painters latterly worked, and still, coinciding with the early masters, it is without shade. The face is modelled for character, not beauty, but is scarcely judicious to draw such a line between the two as to separate them so entirely as we see here. The draperies and the old tree show the closest observance of textures and surface" (173).
The Builder found the work striking despite its small size. Noting that it was his only contribution to the show, the periodical's reviewer described it as "an exquisite, imaginative portrait, and one of the great attractions of the large room. Few could overlook it, unassuming as it is in dimensions as well as appearance" (219). Also impressed, the reviewer for The Critic praised the rather unusual type of beauty of the model and her expression: "Christabel (181), by W. Dyce, R.A., is also in the flat fresco-like style. The expression – more particularly of the mouth – is very fine. In our estimation, the face gains, rather than otherwise, by a certain severity of outline and by its departure from recognized fashionable types of beauty" (241). The Illustrated London News, however, merely noted: "Mr. Dyce is content with a very small study of early Italian art" (457-58).
Writing in Fraser's Magazine, W. G. Collingwood was critical, and did not feel that Dyce's image of Christabel matched the version of the maiden idealized by Coleridge: "Mr. Dyce's Christabel (No.181) is by no means equal to the picture which the poet has painted: We do not recognize Christabel pent in a frame; a half-length, nay, a kit-kat Christabel! Where are the mossy boughs, and the jagged shadows, and the moonlight which should frame a picture of 'the lovely ladie'? Coleridge's Christabel is a fair northern beauty: Mr. Dyce's Christabel is a somewhat plain Italian, with pale face, not fair, dry eyes, and a sulky expression. Everything in the poem is mysterious and unreal, 'eerie' and vague; not so the picture. Let the painter rechristen it 'Beatrice' or 'Francesca,' or some other soft Italian name, that it may not clash with a preconceived ideal" (712).
The reviewer for The Spectator admired aspects of the painting despite feeling it verged on mannerism: "Uniting calm judgement to feeling and skill, Mr. Dyce is a step in advance at either Mr. Poole [Paul Falconer Poole] or the President [Sir Charles Eastlake]; but, in his work also – a head of Coleridge's Christabel praying at the old oak tree, the feeling is the really worthy thing, and that is very delightfully touched with the early piety and charm, – although one cannot but perceive that it trenches on mannerism. The white roses in the hair look extremely like artificial flowers; and as to the adjuration quoted from the poet,
Her face – oh! call it fair, not pale,
we would venture to hint at 'dingy' as more exactly descriptive than either epithet; and this still more markedly of the hands" (555).
Ruskin in his Academy Notes for 1855 disliked this painting because he felt that Dyce had merely imitated the forms of Italian quattrocento painting but not the spirit: "An example of one of the false branches of Pre-Raphaelitism, consisting in imitation of the old religious masters. This head is founded chiefly on reminiscence of Sandro Botticelli. The ivy leaves at the side are as elaborate as in the true school, but are quite false both in colour and shade. There is some sweet expression in the face" (19).
Bibliography
"Art and Artists. Royal Academy." The Critic XIV (15 May 1855): 241-42.
Christabel. Art UK. Web. 19 December 2024.
Collingwood, William Gershom. "On Some Pictures in the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1855." Fraser's Magazine LI (June 1855): 707-15.
Dafforne, James. "British Artists: Their Style and Character. No. LI. - William Dyce." The Art Journal New Series VI (1860): 296.
"Fine Arts. The Royal Academy Exhibition: General Subjects." The Spectator XXVIII (May 26, 1855): 554-55.
Melville, Jennifer. William Dyce and the Pre-Raphaelite Vision. Ed. Jennifer Melville. Aberdeen: Aberdeen City Council, 2006, cat. 20, 112.
"Opening of the Exhibition of the Royal Academy." The Illustrated London News XXVI (May 12, 1855): 457-58.
painting/Christabel. Glasgow Museums. Web. 19 December 2024.
Pointon, Marcia. William Dyce 1806-1864, A Critical Biography.Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1979, 138-39.
Ruskin, John. "Academy Notes." The Works of John Ruskin. Eds. E. T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn. London: George Allen, 1904. Vol. XIV.
"The Royal Academy." The Art Journal New Series I (June 1, 1855): 169-84.
"The Royal Academy Exhibition." The Builder XIII (12 May 1855): 219-20.
Staley, Allen. The Pre-Raphaelite Landscape. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1973, 163-64.
Created 19 December 2024