Physical description
The importance of the harvest to agrarian Britain has been discussed earlier in this catalogue (see nos. 34, 52); the period 1840-50 saw a series of disastrous harvests - the years were known as the 'hungry forties'. After 1850, the situation changed and this painting celebrates the magnificent harvest of 1854. Collins adds an extra dimension by painting the child holding a bound sheaf of wheat, both the traditional symbol of concord and the attribute of Ceres, classical goddess of agriculture and abundance. The ivy on the wall is the symbol of Bacchus, god of wine, so the artist may be referring to the Eucharist, the Christian sacrament of consuming bread and wine. Collins was one of the earliest friends of the Pre-Raphaelites, particularly Hunt and Millais, fellow-students in the 1840s at the Royal Academy. He was even proposed for membership of the Brotherhood itself. This picture was painted mainly in the summer of 1854 before he went to Scotland with Millais.
Place of Origin
England, Great Britain (probably, painted)
Date
1854 (painted)
Artist/maker
Collins, Charles Allston, born 1828 - died 1873 (artist)
Materials and Techniques
oil on canvas
Marks and inscriptions
'CA Collins 1854'
Dimensions
Height: 43.8 cm estimate, Width: 34.9 cm estimate, Height: 65 cm framed, Width: 55 cm framed, Depth: 7.5 cm frame
Object history note
Bequeathed by Rev. Chauncey Hare Townshend, 1868
Descriptive line
Oil painting, 'The Good Harvest of 1854', Charles Alston Collins, 1854
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
Parkinson, R., Victoria and Albert Museum, Catalogue of British Oil Paintings 1820-1860, London: HMSO, 1990, p. 33
The following is the full text of the entry:
"COLLINS, Charles Allston (1828-1873)
Born Hampstead, London, 25 January 1828, the son of William Collins RA and younger brother of the novelist Wilkie Collins. Studied with his father and from 1844 at the RA Schools, and was an early friend and associate of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, particularly Hunt and Millais (he was actually proposed for membership). Exhibited 14 works at the RA between 1847 and at the 1857 Pre-Raphaelite exhibitions at Russell Place and in Liverpool. His style of painting was based on Pre-Raphaelite theories, and his subjects reflect his interest in High Anglicanism. In the later 1850s he abandoned painting for writing, contributing articles to periodicals and publishing several novels and travel books. Married Charles Dickens's daughter Kate 1860, and designed the cover for the monthly parts of The Mystery of Edwin Drood 1870. Died Brompton, London, 9 April 1873.
LIT: Art Journal 1904, pp281-4; S M Ellis Wilkie Collins, Le Fanu, and others 1931, pp54-73
The Good Harvest of 1854
1394-1869 Neg HD1616
Canvas, 43.8 x 34.9 cm (17¼ x 13¾ ins)
Signed and dated 'CA Collins 1854' [CAC in monogram] diagonally in red br
Townshend Bequest 1869
Exhibited at the RA in 1855 as 'The Good Harvest of '54', his last work before giving up painting for a literary career. It was presumably painted mainly in the summer of 1854, before going to Scotland in the autumn with Millais (J G Millais The Life and Letters of Sir John Everett Millais 1899, I, p243). In 1854 Millais was working on 'The Blind Girl' at Winchelsea, Sussex, and also several small pictures of single female figures.
It was hung in the Octagon Room at the RA; Ruskin wrote in his Academy Notes for 1855 that 'There is much careful painting in this little study, and it was a wicked thing to put it into a room in which, while its modest subject could draw no attention, its good painting was of necessity utterly invisible'. The picture was not noticed by the critics of the Art Journal and Athenaeum.
As Staley points out, it shows Collins's continuing dependence on the work of his friend Millais; the background of ivy on a brick wall is taken from A Huguenot, on St Bartholomew's Day, refusing to shield himself from danger by wearing the Roman Catholic badge' (1851-2, private collection). The motif of a figure at an ivy-clad door might also relate to Holman Hunt's The Light of the World (1851-3, Keble College, Oxford).
The 1850s saw a series of splendid harvests following the 'hungry 'forties', perhaps inspiring several landscape paintings, notably Ford Madox Brown's 'Carrying Corn' and 'The Hayfield' (1854-5 and 1855-6, Tate Gallery). (For further comment and references on this subject, see K D Kriz 'An English Arcadia revisited and reassessed: Holman Hunt's The Hireling Shepherd and the rural tradition' in Art History December 1987, pp485-8.) Collins's painting may also have a larger meaning. The bound sheaf is a traditional symbol of concord, one of the minor virtues, and also relates to Ceres, the goddess of agriculture, as a symbol of abundance. The ivy was traditionally sacred to Bacchus, the god of wine, so the combination implied - of bread and wine - might well refer to the eucharist. Many of Collins's subjects are associated with his High Anglican beliefs.
EXH: RA 1855 (1334); Victorian Paintings Arts Council 1962 (7)
LIT: ed ET Cook and A Wedderburn The Works of John Ruskin vol XIV, 1904, p29; A Staley The Pre-Raphaelite Landscape 1973, p83, repr pi 40b; S. Casteras Images of Victorian Womanhood in English Art 1987, p44"
Mikael Ahlund, ed, including an essay by Martin Barnes, The Pre-Raphaelites Stockholm: Nationalmuseum, 2009. ISBN: 978-91-7100-809-1.
Exhibition catalogue
Vikutoria & Arub?to Bijutsukan-z? : eikoku romanshugi kaigaten = The Romantic tradition in British painting, 1800-1950 : masterpieces from the Victoria and Albert Museum / selected by Mark Evans [Japan : Brain Trust], 2002. 185 p. : ill. (chiefly col.) ; 30 cm.
Exhibition History
The Pre-Raphaelites: Dream and Reality in 19th Century Britain (Nationalmuseum, Stockholm 26/02/2009-24/05/2009)
The Romantic Tradition in British Painting 1800-1950: Masterpieces from the Victoria and Albert Museum (Prefectural Museum of Art, Hyogo, Kobe, Japan 28/01/2003-06/04/2003)
The Romantic Tradition in British Painting 1800-1950: Masterpieces from the Victoria and Albert Museum (Koriyama City Museum of Art 22/11/2002-27/12/2002)
The Romantic Tradition in British Painting 1800-1950: Masterpieces from the Victoria and Albert Museum (Matsuzakaya Museum, Nagoya, Japan 19/10/2002-11/11/2002)
The Romantic Tradition in British Painting 1800-1950: Masterpieces from the Victoria and Albert Museum (Chiba Prefectural Museum of Art, Japan 24/08/2002-06/10/2002)
Materials
Oil paint; Canvas
Techniques
Oil painting
Subjects depicted
Child; Corn
Categories
Christianity; Paintings
Collection code
PDP
