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The Widow Whitgift and her Sons

Watercolour
1906 (made)
Artist/Maker
Rackham, Arthur (artist)
Place of origin
England (made)

Watercolour drawing depicting the characters of The Widow Whitgift and her two sons from a story by Rudyard Kipling. They are standing in a marsh and are surrounded by fairy-like creatures at their feet, who appear to be pleading with them, almost all displaying expressions of worry and woe.

Object details

Categories
Paintings
Illustration
Disability
Uncanny
Object type
Watercolour
Titles
  • The Widow Whitgift and her Sons (assigned by artist)
  • Dymchurch Flit (published title)
  • Puck of Pook's Hill (series title)
Materials and techniques
Pen and ink and watercolour
Pen and Ink and Watercolour
Drawing
Illustration
Brief description
Arthur Rackham. The Widow Whitgift and her sons. Illustration to "Dymchurch Flit" in Rudyard Kipling's "Puck of Pook's Hill". Great Britain, 1906.
Physical description
Watercolour drawing depicting the characters of The Widow Whitgift and her two sons from a story by Rudyard Kipling. They are standing in a marsh and are surrounded by fairy-like creatures at their feet, who appear to be pleading with them, almost all displaying expressions of worry and woe.
Dimensions
  • From catalogue height: 30.8cm
  • From catalogue width: 24.5cm
  • Frame height: 54cm
  • Frame width: 47.5cm
  • Frame depth: 5cm
Marks and inscriptions
  • Arthur Rackham (Signed)
  • [19]06 (Dated)
Gallery label
From: Arthur Rackham at Bateman's, East Sussex, from 8 Sept - 29 Oct 2017

"Go!" she says, "Go with me leave an' Goodwill."

In the chapter of Puck of Pook's Hill entitled 'The Widow Whitgift and her Sons', the Pharisees (the Sussex dialect work for 'fairies') want to leave the country during the Reformation, but can't until a mortal gives them leave to do so. Widow Whitgift has two sons, one blind and one dumb, and once she has given the Pharisees leave to go, her sons row the boat to carry all of the fairies of England out to France to escape. The story if told by Puck in the guise of Tom Shoesmith, a long-dead friend of the children's gardener Ralph Hobden.
James Hamilton believes Rackham is here 'parodying the Newlyn School paintings of fishermen and their lives by Stanhope Forbes and others'. The Widow Whitgift and her two sons are shown standing in the strange uncanny landscape of Romney Marsh, on the borders of Kent and Sussex, surrounded by fairy-like creatures at their feet, who are pleading with them with expressions of worry and woe.

Signed and dated '06, pen and ink and watercolour. 30.8 x 24.5 cm.
Victoria and Albert Museum. Bequeathed by Mrs. Frances Draper from the Page Draper Collection. Museum No. P.16-1936.
Credit line
Bequeathed by Mrs. Frances Draper from the Page Draper Collection.
Object history
Illustration to 'Dymchurch Flit' in Rudyard Kipling's 'Puck of Pook's Hill'. The story is set in the strange uncanny landscape of Romney Marsh, on the borders of Kent and Sussex. Puck - in the guise of Tom Shoesmith, a long-dead friend of Ralph Hobden - tells how the 'people of the hills' flitted out of England in the 1530s. They were much troubled by the cruelty and suffering caused by the religious conflicts of the day, and decided they would have to go. They crowded onto the marsh, on the edge of England, and the air was full of their discontents. They called on the Widow Whitgift to help them, and lend them her two sons to carry them over the sea. They did so, and since one was blind, and the other unable to speak, they could tell nothing of what they had seen.
Subjects depicted
Fairies
Stories
Elves
Gnomes
Bibliographic references
  • Engen, Rodney. The Age of Enchantment. Beardsley, Dulac and their Contemporaries 1890-1930, London : Scala Publishers Ltd., 2007 no.65
  • Victoria and Albert Museum, Department of Engraving, Illustration and Design and Department of Paintings, Accessions 1936, London: Board of Education, 1937.
  • Coombs, Katherine British watercolours : 1750-1950 . London: V&A Publications, 2012 p.102, pl.92
Collection
Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collection
Accession number
P.16-1936

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Record createdAugust 13, 2007
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O138427/the-widow-whitgift-and-her-watercolour-rackham-arthur/
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