Gilbert à Becket's Troth - The Saracen Maiden Entering London at Sundown, by George John Pinwell (1842-1875). 1872. Watercolour and gouache over graphite on paper; 22¾ x 43 inches (57.5 x 109.3 cm). Collection of the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight, accession no. LL.3984. [Click on all the images to enlarge them.]
This was the first work Pinwell exhibited as a full member of the old Water-Colour Society and in Williamson's opinion "as a composition he never surpassed it" (21). In this watercolour Pinwell has chosen a scene from a literary source. Esposito has noted: "it is based on a published poem from 1867 by Robert Buchanan, which tells of the search by a Saracen maiden for her beloved from the Holy Land where he was once held captive, and from where she helped him escape, to London. She follows him to England knowing only that his name was Gilbert and that he lived in the English capital. They are eventually reunited. Pinwell has chosen to represent her arrival into London, surrounded by curious onlookers. He emphasizes her lonely figure, and her 'foreignness' by dressing her in white, and she stands out from the more darkly dressed crowd. In this way Pinwell's isolation of the main protagonist, underscoring her difference through dress, and deportment, from the surrounding company" (75-76). The model for the Saracen maiden was Mrs. Walker, the sister of Pinwell's wife Isabella Mercy Stevens. The watercolour was loosely based on a wood engraving Pinwell had previously designed for Once a Week, Series One, Volume X, 14 May 1864, p. 574, although the composition is significantly different.
The Architect found this work had more unity in composition than Pinwell's earlier submissions: "The drawings of Mr. Pinwell and Mr. Houghton form a notable feature of the gallery. From the first artist we have a large composition of many figures, telling the tale of the Saracen maiden, who, wandering in search of her English lover, Gilbert à Becket, enters London 'at sundown' amid the curiosity of idlers, who crowd after her with looks of wonder or disdain. The picture has more unity than Mr. Pinwell's former efforts; the different groups are kept in nice relation to the central figure of the forlorn maiden, the colour, though still a little too foxy, is in exquisite keeping with the sentiment of the subject, and the incidents of character and attitude are wrought out with singular imaginativeness and purpose. Mr. Pinwell has yet to gain certainty of execution; he fumbles between scratchy stippling and hazy blotting; he often leaves form ill-defined, or absolutely out of drawing, as here in the group on the hillock against the sky; but with his undoubted genius these faults should disappear under study" (213).
Closer view of two figure groups.
The critic of The Art Journal praised the watercolour as a work of genius:
Mr. Pinwell's subject – for he sends only one - upholds his name for what may almost be termed fastidious selection. His performance (127) is based on the romantic story of Gilbert-à-Becket. How he went in the train of a Norman baron to the Holy Land is well known; also how he was taken prisoner, reduced to slavery, and won the love of the daughter of a Saracen chief, who aided him in his escape. Without him life to her was intolerable; she therefore determined to follow him, although all she had for her guidance were the two words, London and Gilbert. Mr. Pinwell takes up the narrative at the poor girl's arrival in London, and here she appears coming from the landing-place neither lost nor bewildered, but steadfast in her purpose, and heedless of the wonder expressed by those who stop to gaze at her. Everything we have seen from the hand of this artist is typical of the highest order of genius. His works are much elaborated, yet we think he contents himself with too little. As regards tone they are pitched in a very high key, and in execution have a certain tenuity of manner, which is often a disqualification, arising from much practice in wood drawing, whence also comes the dreamy, flitting character of the scene. But having said this, it remains to point out the beauties, which consist in the natural movement of the persons and the touching expression given to figures so small. It is a work of great self-possession to entertain such a subject, but is a triumph carry out such a theme to an issue so felicitous. [157]
F. G. Stephens in The Athenaeum noted that the contributions of Pinwell and his friend A. B. Houghton had much in common: "Mr. Pinwell's picture (127) illustrates the well-known legend of the search of Thomas Becket's Saracen mother for his father Gilbert, after she landed at Dover. It shows the unaccountable effect of light to which we have alluded, and, like the former painting, that completeness in the execution of single figures, careful painting, occasional beauty in the faces, dramatic conception of the subject, and other fine qualities which so often distinguish Mr. Pinwell's productions" (532). A critic for The Builder found Pinwell's work too eccentric to give him any pleasure: "Mr. Pinwell is, of course, highly finished and original, in his own peculiar style, in Gilbert à Becket's Troth (127), but he is an artist seeking too much after peculiarity and piquancy in manner and choice of subject. In both respects the present drawing, talented as it undoubtedly is, really is too outré to give pleasure" (379). The reviewer for The Illustrated London News found passages both to admire and decry in Pinwell's submission: "Mr. Pinwell contributes a large, drawing with some admirable passages and some strange peculiarities, illustrating the legend (which is unsupported by a particle of historical evidence) of the Saracen maiden, who, after assisting Gilbert à Becket to escape from slavery in the Holy Land, followed him to London. She is entering the city at sundown, noticed by a number of characteristic figures, who pity or mock as she passes" (406).
The Spectator felt this was the most noteworthy figurative painting in the O.W.S. exhibition but lamented its lack of chiaroscuro:
Among figure-pieces, the most noteworthy is Mr. Pinwell's 'Saracen Maiden entering London (127). The catalogue supplies a long explanatory paragraph; but the picture speaks for itself, and needs no interpreter. It is quite clear from the gestures of the bystanders that the Saracen girl is in a strange land, where the manners that make the man and avoid giving pain to others are little studied. Begin with the principal figure and look in detail at every group, and you cannot fail to admire the grace, the dramatic force, and a certain life-inspiring magic which pervades every one of them. The great desideratum is a more pictorial treatment. There is no massing of parts, no chiaroscuro. Another fault is the coppery colour. If Mr. Pinwell would condescend to admit (with Turner) that the knowledge of chiaroscuro is essential to making a complete picture, there would be hope of his producing a work not beautiful in fragments alone, but in its entirety. [532]
A critic for The Saturday Review commented on Pinwell's involvement with "their school of the future" who became the Idyllists
:The romantic story of Gilbert à Becket's Troth or the Saracen Maiden entering London at Sundown (127), has furnished Mr. Pinwell, a devotee of this school of the future, with one of the most charming compositions ever seen on these walls. Gilbert à-Becket in the Holy Land gained the affections of a Saracen maiden of high degree, who, not being able to live without him, set out for London town, knowing but two words – "London" and "Gilbert."" The picture represents the lady, weary and perplexed, near to the city of her pilgrimage as the sun goes down. The road is pleasantly peopled with other wayfarers, who for the most part are aimless and purposeless save for the ends of picture-making. The artist, as usual, is content to pose his figures in pensive, statuesque, motionless attitudes; to all appearances not a person will reach the city ere the gates are shut. The whole scene strikes the eye as a pleasing impossibility, as a romance beyond the reach of reality; hence, perhaps the term. The artist has been at pains to link together the isolated fragments of his composition, and, as usual, unity of color consists in the liberal use of an indescribable brickdust pigment; indeed, the whole picture seems to have been made and burnt in a brick kiln. But the spectator is bound to bear in mind that brickdust is the life-giving ingredient in the school of the future. [534]
Certainly contemporary critics accused Fred Walker of using this same brickdust colour in his compositions as well.
When this work was shown at the memorial exhibition of Pinwell's work at Deschamps' Gallery in 1876 a critic for The Spectator admired the pathos and sympathy it generated:
One of the most pathetic of the pictures here shown – and they are nearly all more or less pathetic – is No. 80, Gilbert A' Beckett's Troth: the Saracen Maiden entering London at Sundown. This is the largest of the water-colours in the collection, and a very fine, carefully-executed piece of work. It is evening, and the long, dusty road is strong with groups of children and wayfarers, amongst whom passes the Saracen in soft, white robes. The old question "Gilbert? London?"" is being put, let us hope for the last time, to a couple of young lovers, who turn round with looks of wonder and sympathy, to answer the strange query. In this composition, a quiet sadness is the predominant feeling; from the face of the foreign maiden all hope and fear have died out in the course of her long journey; however, we know that her pluck and constancy met with their reward, for was she not married to Gilbert, and did she not have her name changed to Matilda? – which must have suited her passionate Oriental face remarkably well. [274]
Bibliography
"Art. The Water-Colour Society." The Spectator. XLV (27 April 1872): 532.
Esposito, Donato. Frederick Walker and the Idyllists. London: Lund Humphries, 2017. 74-76
"Fine Arts. The Society of Painters in Water Colours." The Illustrated London News. LIV (27 April 1872): 406-07.
"Pinwell's Pictures." Judy. XVIII (23 February 1876): 193.
"Society of Painters in Water-Colours." The Art Journal. New Series VIII (1 June 1872): 157-58
"Society of Painters in Water Colours." The Builder. XXX (18 May 1872): 379.
Stephens, Frederic George. "The Society of Painters in Water Colours." The Athenaeum. No. 2322 (27 April 1872): 530-34.
"The Water-Colour Societies." The Architect VII (27 April 1872): 213-14.
"The Water-Colour Exhibitions." The Saturday Review. XXXIII (27 April 1872): 533-34.
Williamson, George C. George J. Pinwell and His Works. London: George Bell & Sons, 1900, 21 & 40.
Created 14 May 2023