Relatives in Bond, 1877. Oil on panel; 37 x 26 inches (93.9 x 66 cm). Collection of Royal Holloway, University of London, accession no. THC0026. Image reproduced via Art UK for the purpose of non-commercial research. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Hodgson exhibited Relatives in Bond at the Royal Academy in 1877, no. 415, one of four works he showed there that year. The scene, likely set in Tunis, features a group of Arab men, women, and children bringing food that they have loaded into baskets and are hoisting up to their relatives who are peering through a grated window of their prison. The food they are providing includes fish, vegetables, and fruit. Charity [Zakat] is the third of the five pillars of Islam and is considered both an act of worship to God and a communal obligation in order to address social inequalities.
Of the pictures Hodgson exhibited that year The Architect found: "His colour seems to us to have been somewhat exaggerated lately in glow and ripeness" (319). A critic for The Art Journal found his Orientalist works full of humour: "J. E. Hodgson, A., indulges in a little quiet humour at the expensive of his Oriental friends…There is a suppressed humour also in his Pampered Menials (156) and in Relatives in Bond (415), to whose grated prison window their friends outside hoist up baskets of provisions. Like the first, these are both Eastern subjects, and are full of character and local colour" (199).
F. G. Stephens in The Athenaeum considered Relatives in Bond the best of the three Orientalist works that Hodgson exhibited this year: "Mr. Hodgson is a liberal contributor; but we have had from him more enjoyable pictures than those of this year…Relatives in Bond (415) is the best of these Oriental works. The scene is outside a prison in Tunis (?), with prisoners, passers-by, and charitable folks who have brought gifts of fish and fruit for the convicts. The details of the design explain the doleful conditions of the latter, and show how sore is the need for a Tunisian Howard [John Howard]. The background comprises highly picturesque groups of buildings, a vista enriched with sunlight and shadow, thus producing a very agreeable effect" (615).
Bibliography
"Painting at the Royal Academy." The Architect XVII (May 19, 1877): 318-19.
Relatives in Bond. Art UK. Web. 17 January 2024.
"The Royal Academy Exhibition." The Art Journal New series XVI (1875): 197-200.
Stephens, Frederic George. "Fine Arts. The Royal Academy." The Athenaeum No. 2585 (12 May 1877): 614-16.
What Does the Quran Say about Charity?. Gim Foundation. Web. 17 January 2024.
Created 17 January 2024