Miranda's First Sight of Ferdinand, by William Maw Egley (1826-1916). Oil on canvas. 26 ¼ x 17 inches (66.6 x 43.3 cm). Private collection. Image reproduced by kind permission of Olympia Auctions (see bibliography).
This painting dates to 1863 but for some reason it was not exhibited at Egley's usual venues like the Royal Academy or the British Institution. Egley did, however, exhibit it in 1864 at the Liverpool Institution of Fine Arts. The scene depicted is Miranda's first sight of Ferdinand and an old label attached to the verso of the painting is inscribed:
PROSPERO. The fringed curtains of thine eye advance
And say, what thou seest yond?
MIRANDA. What is't? a spirit?
Tempest. Act 1. Sc. 2.
Shakespearean subjects were extremely popular with Victorian painters and Egley was no exception. As early as 1847 he had exhibited Hotspur and Lady Percy from Shakespeare's Henry IV at the British Institution. In the play The Tempest, from which this painting derives, Ferdinand was the prince of Naples, the son of King Alonso. His ship was wrecked in a storm conjured up by Miranda's father Prospero, a sorcerer and the former Duke of Milan. Prospero had been overthrown by his brother Antonio, aided by King Alonso, and he and his daughter Miranda were put out to sea in a small rickety boat until they eventually come safely to an island where they have lived for twelve years. Following the shipwreck Ferdinand is separated from his father and his friends by Ariel, a spirit attendant to Prospero, and led to where he meets up with Prospero and his daughter Miranda. Ferdinand immediately falls in love with Miranda, and she returns his affections. He then promises to make her Queen of Naples. Prospero makes use of Ferdinand's infatuation with Miranda to regain his rightful position as the Duke of Milan.
In Egley's painting, Miranda is shown as she catches her first sight of Ferdinand as her father Prospero, holding his sorcerer's staff in his left hand, points in the direction of Ferdinand's approach with his right. The two are standing near the seashore with a rocky background behind them and a rugged cliff seen off to the left. Ferdinand will be the first young man Miranda has seen for many years because she was just a child when she and her father were kidnapped and sent into exile. Like many of Egley's works based on historical or literary sources it is particularly splendid in the costumes worn by Prospero and Miranda. The scene captures well the passage from which Egley took the inscribed lines:
PROSPERO. The fringed curtains of thine eye advance
And say, what thou seest yond?
MIRANDA.
What is't? a spirit?
Lord, how it looks about! Believe me, sir,
It carries a brave form. But 'tis a spirit....
I might call him
A thing divine, for nothing natural
I ever saw so noble.
Bibliography
Fine Paintings, Works on Paper & Sculpture. London: Olympia Auctions (June 12, 2024), lot 19. https://www.olympiaauctions.com/auction/lot/lot-19---william-maw-egley--british-18261916/?lot=43967
Created 16 July 2024