Left: The Door of Mercy [A Repentant Sinner at the Door of Mercy], by Arthur Hughes (1832-1915). c. early 1870s. Oil on panel. 9 ¾ x 9 inches (24.5 x 23 cm). Private collection. Image courtesy of the author. Right: The Door of Mercy, c.1892-93. Oil on panel; 43 x 35 inches (122 x 96 cm). Collection of the UCT Works of Art Collection. Image courtesy of the University of Cape Town. [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Inscribed on the mounts of both versions of the paintings is: "There is joy in the Presence of Angels in Heaven over one Sinner that repenteth. Though thy sins be as Scarlet They shall be White as Snow." This quotation is a combination of two biblical verses, the first taken from Luke Chapter XV, verse 10, and the second from Isaiah Chapter I, verse 18. The initial idea for this subject began as an illustration for the periodical Good Words for the Young that was published in January 1871 as part of a series of essays by William Brighty Rands, the so-called "Laureate of the Nursery," and entitled "Lilliput Lectures." Hughes provided six striking designs for this series where he used personification as the basis for some of the illustrations. Hughes's illustrations were entitled "Government," "Science," "Justice, Mercy, Charity," "Trade," "Let Be and You Will See," and "Helpfulness." The illustration for "Mercy" , which formed the basis for the later paintings, was portrayed as an abstract female figure wiping clean the slate of a fallen sinner whilst reaching out a helping hand down towards her. The preliminary drawing for the print of Mercy is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (accession no. E.4191-1909).
At some point in the 1870s Hughes made an oil sketch based on this subject which was either bought by, or given to, his friend the painter Frederic James Shields. Shields obviously thought highly of this work considering it an exceptional design. His opinion of it may have prompted Anne Violet Cavendish Bentinck to request Hughes make a copy of the sketch in 1900. In a letter of 16 November 1900 from Hughes to Shields he writes:
I expect your regard for that sketch was catching…. It is so seldom one's attempts in that class of design ever seem to meet reward. One likes it very much oneself and I suppose that is the reward…. What a delightful friend is yours [Cavendish Bentinck], and how superior is her taste, and how nice of you to have so cultivated it!... Well, dear Shields, of course I should gladly repeat it, but I should like very much to make it a little bigger and with the legend 'There is joy in the presence of angels etc.' on the spandrels of the frame written in gold, on an appropriate frame, and so do you think your friend could run to 15 or 20 guineas for this? I will ask you to name which of the two sums you think best in this case and I shall be greatly pleased to do it for either. [qtd. in Roberts, 217]
Hughes therefore borrowed the early sketch from Shields in order to make the copy. In a letter to Shields of 22 November 1900 he writes: "Many thanks for the offer of sending the little picture, but I will rather send a messenger for it by hand one day next week…I am most grateful to you for those remarks about first thoughts and first sketch value, and I'll keep to yours in this, I promise. I know it is right as far as it goes and as far as I am able to go!" (qtd. in Roberts 217). Shields was obviously anxious that Hughes stick as closely as possible to his early ideas for the composition rather than trying to paint the replica in his later style.
Hughes had earlier painted a larger and more finished version of this subject in c.1892-93 that he likely later retouched in 1896-98 (Roberts, cat. 286, 215-216). It was painted in his mature style and somehow lacks both the piety and charm of his initial sketch. This was likely why Shields later on was so anxious for Hughes to make a faithful replica of the early sketch for Miss Cavendish Bentinck. The principal version was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1893, no. 828, and later that same year at the Liverpool Academy, no. 1106. It is now in the collection of the University of Cape Town. Even Hughes admitted in a letter to Shields of March 7, 1893 that it was not as successful as the early sketch stating he "was able to see that it would not and could not be so beautiful as the old version" (Robert 216).
Left: The Angel of Mercy blotting out the Sins Pen and black ink and Chinese white on paper. 4 1/2 x 4 15/16 inches (11.4 x 12.5 cm). Collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, accession no. E.4191-1909. Image courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum. Right: Mercy, Wood engraving by the Dalziel Brothers after Arthur Hughes from "Lilliput Lectures" for Good Words for the Young, January 1871.
The painting was well received by the hanging committee of the Royal Academy, however, and it even found a place on the line. On April 15, 1893 Hughes wrote to his daughter Agnes Hale-White:
The Door of Mercy, which I just learn is hung by a delightful letter from Leslie [George Dunlop Leslie], who hopes I will pardon him for writing to say how pleased he is with it!, and apologizing for not giving it a better place, for it was so difficult to range with the others "so bright & pure in colour it was as though I had an open window to hang on the walls. It is full of infinite grace & tenderness and contrast strangely, as heaven should, with the very earthly character of the great bulk of the other pictures in the exhibition."
He goes on to say
Poynter [Edward Poynter] and he have one criticism to make – and agreed on by Calderon [Philip Calderon] and Dicksee [Frank Dicksee] – that the backboard is too black, and recommends me to come early on varnishing day and grey it a little. He incidentally says I shall be able to reach it quite well as it is on the dado. I suppose it is in one of the less good rooms and perhaps in a corner, as he again apologizes for not giving it a better place: "If I had only my own feelings to consider, I most certainly should have done." They are quite right about the board, and I should have done it before going in had there been time. [qtd. in Roberts 216].
Later Hughes writes in a letter of 25 April 1893 to his friend Alice Boyd: "Yesterday was the R.A. varnishing, and I found the Door of Mercy beautifully hung on the line…. I met Calderon and he said my picture was like a lovely Fra Angelico" (qtd. in Roberts 216).
The sketch, however, has much more of the feeling of a quattrocento painting than the principal version. In the finished version the picture plane has been extended. There are seven angels in the background playing instruments and singing, rather than just the four in the sketch. The later version of The Door of Mercy is not treated in such a Gothic fashion. The pose of the repentant sinner has been altered somewhat, as has her gown, which is purely scarlet in the sketch but red with white sleeves in the principal version. The foreground has been elaborated in the principal version by adding a stony path and brambles. In the finished painting a flaming sword can be seen on the door to the right, reminiscent of the flaming sword the Archangel Uriel used to drive Adam and Eve out from the Garden of Eden.
When the principal version was shown at the Royal Academy in 1893 it received faint praise from Hughes's old friend F.G. Stephens who commented in The Athenaeum:
Mr. A. Hughes's Door of Mercy (828), although admirable for some charming faces, graceful attitudes, and tasteful draperies, sins more especially in the incongruity of its design. Amid unreal and unsubstantial figures of angels grouped at the door of heaven (which, by the way, is of a kind of architecture not recognized in Conduit Street), a spirit is in the act of wiping, with a real sponge and from a real slate, the kneeling penitent's score of sins, which has actually been chalked up against her in a better world than ours. Is it possible Mr. Hughes thinks they do this sort of thing in heaven? How could a painter of so many lovely things, the artist of the most exquisite April Love commit himself so strangely? [644]
Stephens' reference to Conduit Street refers to the location of the Royal Institute of British Architects at 9 Conduit Steet from 1859-1934.
Bibliography
Blackburn, Henry. Academy Notes XIX (1893): 23, reproduced 121.
Print: Drawing by Arthur Hughes (at the University of Cape Town). ibali Digital Collections UCT. 12 March 2025.
Print: Drawing by Arthur Hughes (at the Victoria and Albert Museum). V&A. 12 March 2025.
Roberts, Len. Arthur Hughes His Life and Works. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Antique Collectors' Club, 1997, cat. 286, 215-16 and cat. 286.2. 216-17.
Stephens, Frederic George. "The Royal Academy." The Athenaeum No. 3421 (20 May 1893): 642-44.
Created 12 March 2025