A Shepherd of Jerusalem, by William J. Webb(e) (1830-1912[?]). 1863. Oil, support unknown; dimensions unknown. Wikimedia image, identified as being in the public domain. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Webb(e) exhibited this painting at the Royal Academy in 1863, no. 593, the first of his Orientalist works to be shown there and surely one of his finest. It was accompanied by these lines from the New Testament: "And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice" (John X, 4). This clearly shows that it was intended not merely as an Eastern genre scene but to have religious meaning, linking it to similar works by William Holman Hunt. This parable compares Christ to the Good Shepherd at the door of the sheepfold who guides his flock and goes before them in order to seek the best pastures and watering-places and to defend them from danger. This parable was intended as a continuation of Jesus's confrontation with the Pharisees in the close of Chapter IX of John. The Pharisees opposed Christ based on the principle that they were the pastors of the church and that Jesus, having no commission from them, was an intruder and an impostor and therefore the people were bound in duty to stick to them. In opposition to this Christ uses the analogy of the concept of sheep and shepherds to indicate who were the false shepherds and who the true, leaving the Pharisees to infer that they were the false ones. Individuals who belong to God recognize the voice of God and respond to it but, like sheep from a foreign flock, unbelievers will not respond when called by Christ.
Because no letters or diary by Webb are known to survive it is unknown whether the artist went to the Holy Land, like his fellow British travellers William Holman Hunt and Thomas Seddon, in order to bring greater authenticity, spiritual and topographical, to his religious works in order to better understand the events described in the Bible. A Shepherd of Jerusalem features a young male shepherd outside the walls of Jerusalem, as seen in the background, holding a lamb in his arms. His flock of sheep are following him as suggested in the parable of Jesus. The colourful costume of the shepherd, the sheep, and the rocky foreground are all meticulously painted in Pre-Raphaelite detail and intensity of colour.
Contemporary Reviews of the Painting
When it was exhibited at the Royal Academy the work was not extensively reviewed despite its obvious quality. A critic of The Art Journal liked the painting: "In A Shepherd of Jerusalem (593), by W. J. Webb, we have the shepherd bearing a lamb in his arms, Jerusalem seen in the distance, the flock of attendant sheep being endowed almost with human sympathy" (114). The Illustrated London News preferred Webb(e)'s handling of the sheep to that of the shepherd's head: "Mr. Webb, 'The "Shepherd of Jerusalem'" (593), in which the shepherd's head is less successful than the Syrian sheep" (543). The London Daily News praised it for its "truth and naturalness" (4).
Bibliography
"Fine Arts. The Royal Academy." The Illustrated London News XLII (16 May 1863): 542-43.
"The Royal Academy." The Art Journal New Series II (1 June 1863): 105-16.
"The Royal Academy." The London Daily News (15 May 1863): 4.
Created 31 May 2025