Tempera on plaster, 'St Christopher and the Christ Child', John Dickson Batten

The picture shows the head and shoulders of St Christopher who holds a stout pole in the right hand, and with the left hand supports the Christ Child on his left shoulder. The Child wears a red garment reaching to His ankles, and His head is surrounded by a gilt halo.

Purchased, 1906

Historical significance: After attending Trinity College, Cambridge, John Dixon Batten (1860-1932) first went into the law, entering the Inner Temple in 1884. However, he soon abandoned law for art, and went to study at the Slade School of Fine Art under Alphonse Legros. Batten exhibited at the fashionable Grosvenor Gallery in 1886 and 1887, at the New Gallery from 1888 and the Royal Academy from 1891. He worked as a book illustrator, mostly illustrating collections of fairy stories, and became one of the leading members of the fresco revival of the early 20th century.

Batten was a founder member in 1901 (with Joseph Southall, William Holman Hunt and Walter Crane) of the Society of Painters in Tempera (renamed the Society of Mural Decorators and Painters in Tempera in 1912), and for twenty years its Secretary. Between 1921 and 1925 Batten wrote a number of articles on the technical aspects of tempera painting: in the Papers of the Society of Mural Decorators and Painters in Tempera, he wrote on the application of gilding, on the qualities of lime putty, on experiments in fresco by students and on his attempts at using Minoan plaster. He also published 'The Practice of Tempera Painting', in The Studio in 1922 (Volume XXXIV) and 'Modern Craftsmanship: 3. - Fresco Painting' in The Architects' Journal, April 25, 1923. (Copies of all articles in artist's file.)

St Christopher was purchased from the artist in 1906 as an example of technique. It was recommended by Lord Carlisle, acting on behalf of the Board of Education, who had seen the painting when it was exhibited at the Arts & Crafts Society at the Grafton Gallery. Carlisle, himself a painter and friend of many of the leading artists of the day, including Leighton, Madox Brown, Holman Hunt, Prinsep, G.F. Watts, Rossetti and Burne-Jones, probably met Batten when they were fellow exhibitors at the Grosvenor Gallery. Carlisle wrote to Arthur Banks Skinner, Director of the Museum 1905-8 on October 6th 1906 that acquiring St Christopher 'would be most useful for students & persons wishing to employ painting for wall decoration', adding that it 'is also a very beautiful piece of work'.

Before the recommendation was made, Carlisle had taken a close interest in the work, to the point of intervening with the artist in order to ask him to make some modifications to his work. The two different techniques Batten used as a result of Carlisle's suggestions - wet, or fresco, and dry, or secco, are explained in the artist's letter to the Museum of 11 June 1906:

'In the state in which it was exhibited at the Grafton [Gallery] the whole of the monochrome + the red of the Christ Child's dress was painted without tempera on the plaster while it was still damp. The face + hands + feet of the Christ Child were finished in tempera after the plaster was dry. I found that the red of the dress, (which was painted after the verdaccio) was not as firmly fixed as the earlier painting, so I have since my last letter to you washed off all the colour that would come from the red dress + re-painted it with tempera altering the appearance as little as possible. So now the whole of S. Christopher is painted in verdaccio (a monochrome of black + yellow ochre) without tempera, + the whole of the Christ Child is painted in secco with yolk of egg tempera.
'If the painting can be supposed to have an educational value I think it is an advantage that the two stages of the work should be thus clearly divided.'

The artist Walter Crane's opinion was also sought before the purchase was formalised, who wrote the following recommendation in a letter of October 13 1906:

'I am of the opinion, having seen this work, that it would be a valuable acquisition for the museum, as a good example of mural painting in the tempera method of Cennino Cennini, being painted with colours mixed with yolk of egg, on a lime ground. As a work of art it shows great refinement of feeling, & is conceived in the mural & decorative spirit. As Tempera painting is now being revived, & is practised in the Royal College of Art, it would be desirable to have such good modern examples available for students, & I should advise its purchase.'

In his recommendation of the purchase, Skinner concluded: 'Mr Batten is a very skilful artist, and he has displayed in the execution of this work a careful study of the peculiarities of the technique, and has produced a beautiful work of art, full of sentiment.'

St. Christopher was reputedly a 3rd century martyr, whose feast day in the Western Church is 25th July. According to a legend, related in the 13th century 'Golden Legend', he was a giant, 12 cubits (18 feet) tall, who carried across a river a small but almost unbearably heavy child, who was subsequently identified as Christ. St. Christopher became the patron of ferry-men and other travellers, and the widespread belief arose that looking at his image protected against violent death. Large scale sculptures and wall paintings of St. Christopher frequently decorated medieval churches, and the practice arose of carrying smaller images of the saint as an amulet.

All quotations are from correspondence kept in the Registered Papers MA/I/B715.

607-1906