Thou Bird of God, by Joanna Boyce Wells

Thou Bird of God

Joanna Boyce Wells (1831-1861)

1861

Oil on card

This lovely portrait shows a girl with rosy cheeks, wide hazel eyes, windswept Pre-Raphaelite hair, and dove-like angelic wings. She appears against a soft cloudy sky as if she was really flying. [Commentary continues below.]

The painting in its frame

Photographs and commentary by Jacqueline Banerjee.

Photograph taken, by kind permission, at the the National Portrait Gallery, London, when the painting was featured in their "Pre-Raphaelite Sisters" exhibition, 17 October 2019 – 26 January 2020). [Click on the image to enlarge it, and mouse over the text for links.]

According to the gallery label, the title comes from Robert Browning's poem, "The Guardian-Angel," inspired by a seventeenth-century painting "Angeli Cusrode," by the Italian Baroque artist, Guercino. In Browning's poem, he imagines himself being covered by the child's wings" "And suddenly my head is covered o'er / with those wings, white above the child.... — and I shall feel thee guarding me." Sensitive without being sentimental, it calls on but skirts around the familiar Victorian association of children with death. Christopher Newall tells us that this painting was exhibited in the Royal Academy summer exhibition in the year following her death.

Bibliography

"Joanna Mary Boyce (Biographical details)." British Museum. Web. 28 October 2019.

Newall, Christopher. "Boyce [married name Wells], Joanna Mary (1831–1861), genre painter." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Online edition. Web. 29 October 2019.

Created 28 October 2019