Autumn by Anthony Frederick Augustus Sandys. 1860. Oil on canvas. 31 ½ x 43 inches (79.6 x 108.7 cm). Collection of the Castle Museum, Norfolk, accession no. NWHCM: 1951.235.1209. Image courtesy of Norfolk Museums Service, reproduced via Art UK for purposes of non-commercial academic research. [Click on all the images to enlarge them.]
This version, also entitled Autumn, and also dated 1860, was painted in oil on a panel (9 ¾ x 14 inches (25.5 x 35.5 cm), and is in the collection of Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, accession no. 1906P34. This image is reproduced courtesy of Birmingham Museums Trust, which has kindly made it available under a Creative Commons Zero licence (CCO).
Sandys never exhibited either of these paintings although he did exhibit a large brush and dark brown ink version at the Royal Academy in 1862, no. 805. This drawing formed the basis for the large oil version of the same size. Betty Elzea has described the composition of the large oil:
There are three figures on a river bank seen from a low eye level: a white-haired, balding, recumbent man in military uniform, consisting of a scarlet jacket and navy blue trousers, both trimmed with gold braid; beside him, a brown haired woman in a dark yellowish-green dress is seated on the ground on a deep pink striped shawl placed on some rushes; the woman hugs a blonde blue-eyed child wearing a cream-coloured frock and a cerulean blue cape. The group is on a grassy bank with foliage to the right of the man. In the immediate foreground is a still life of a crumpled white cloth, a Chinese blue-and-white ginger jar, a black leather pouch with straw spilling out of it, a round object which may be the lid of the ginger jar, and a sheaf of cut rushes. To the left is seen a river crossed by a three-arched bridge; on the opposite bank is a wooden water-gate (?) and some railings, which are reflected in the river. In the immediate background is a dark green wooded hill with a ruined tower. Behind this are lighter-toned hills with buildings and a ruined castle (?) in profile on them. Further bluish hills are on the skyline, and some grey-blue clouds are above this. The line of the near river bank is identical to that in the large ink drawing, but this differs in the chalk design and the small oil. [158]
The bridge seen in the background is based on the north side of Norwich's Bishop Bridge. Although the landscape seen here is imaginary, it too was clearly inspired by actual Norwich landmarks such as Mousehold Heath, which can be seen from the south side of the bridge. The river depicted is the river Wensum.
The elderly reclining soldier is wearing the undress (off-duty) uniform of a sergeant in the West Norfolk Militia battalion of the 9th Infantry Regiment that was stationed in Norwich between 1858-1862. The service ribbon worn on his tunic reveal that he took part in the Sutlej campaign of 1845-6 and the Punjab campaigns of 1848-9 during the Anglo-Sikh Wars and that he had earned the Long Service and Good Conduct Medals. The models for the figures were a Norwich family, Sergeant Charles Faux, his wife Mary Ann Williams, and their son Robert.
It is not known whether the small painting of Autumn started as a colour sketch for the large oil or whether Sandys may have been commissioned to produce a small version. The two are similar despite some differences in the colouring. Elzea feels that the autumnal metaphor of the title can be elaborated by the advancing age of the soldier and the hour of the day (158). Newall gives a more ominous reading on the painting, however, writing: "No more specific clue is given to the subject's larger symbolic gist than the vespertine effect of light – the last red glow of the setting sun is seen on the horizon – surely indicating the imminence of death, as of night" (181). Yet another art historian, Victoria Osborne, feels the meaning implied was not quite so simple: "The imagery of childhood, adulthood, and older age recalls the art-historical convention of the Three Ages of Man, and the setting sun and waning of the year seem to stand for the approaching end of life. However, the old soldier still appears vigorous, and the solemn, unspoken communion among the three figures suggests hidden meanings beyond the apparently straightforward symbolism" (153). Stephen Wildman favours the less ominous interpretation, suggesting that the twilight landscape represents a symbolic complement to the old soldier's retirement from active service (226).
Pre-Raphaelite Influences
The "Still Life" in the left foreground of the Norfolk Museums Trust version, showing the Chinese blue-and-white ginger jar, black leather pouch with straw spilling out of it, etc.
The style is in the early Pre-Raphaelite manner of the 1850s. Elzea has noted that it is especially close to that of J. E. Millais's A Dream of the Past: Sir Isumbras at the Ford, which must have strongly impressed Sandys since he caricatured it in his famous etching A Nightmare of 1857 (158). Allen Staley has speculated that the possible reason that Sandys never exhibited this painting was "perhaps fear of its being criticized as too dependent upon Millais" (76). He goes on to add: "The foreground detail was obviously inspired by the closely observed natural detail in Millais's and other early Pre-Raphaelite paintings, and the background view over a river at twilight seems equally obviously indebted to A Dream of the Past, as do the messages about youth and age and the passing of time" (76).
Autumn may have originally been intended as one of a set of four paintings relating to the theme of the Seasons. A possible companion entitled Spring is known only from a brush and dark brown ink drawing in the collection of the Castle Museum, Norwich. It is the same size as the elaborately finished drawing for Autumn in the same institution, suggesting they are indeed associated pieces. Spring features a group of five young children, possibly the children of W. H. Clabburn, seated in a woodland setting with their small dog. After Autumn Sandys appears to have largely abandoned painting genre scenes in favour of painting head-and-shoulders or bust-length figures of attractive female models that he turned into literary, biblical, or mythological heroines that proved easier to sell (see Staley 77).
Bibliography
Autumn (Birmingham Museums Trust). Art UK. Web. 13 July 2025.
Autumn (Norfolk Museums Service). Art UK. Web. 13 July 2025.
Elzea, Betty. Frederick Sandys 1829-1904. A Catalogue Raisonné. Woodbridge, Suffolk: The Antique Collectors' Club Ltd., 2001, cat. 2.A.15, 157, 2.A. 16, 158, 2.A.18, 158-59.
Osborne, Victoria. Victorian Radicals. From the Pre-Raphaelites to the Arts & Crafts Movement. Martin Ellis, Victoria Osborne, and Tim Barringer. New York: American Federation of Arts, 2018, cat. 45, 153.
Newall, Christopher. The Pre-Raphaelites. Stockholm: Nationalmuseum, 2009, cat. 63, 181.
Parris, Leslie. The Pre-Raphaelites. London: The Tate Gallery/Penguin Books, 1984, cat. 116, 194.
Staley, Allen. The New Painting of the 1860s. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2011. Chapter Three, "Frederick Sandys." 76-77.
Wildman, Stephen. Visions of Love and Life. Pre-Raphaelite Art from the Birmingham Collection, England. Alexandria, Virginia: Art Services International, 1995, cat. 71, 226-27.
Created 13 July 2025