Lot 198: Frederick Richard Pickersgill, R.A. (1820-1900)

Paolo and Francesca
'And o'er the book they hung, and nothing said,
And every lingering page grew longer as they read'.
Leigh Hunt, The Story of Rimini
signed with monogram and inscribed RA and dated 1865 (lower left)
oil on panel
24 x 19 3/4 in. (60.9 x 50.2 cm.)

(Possibly) London, Royal Academy, 1866, no. 12, as 'Lovers. "And o'er the book they hung and nothing said, and every lingering page grew longer as they read." Leigh Hunt'.

(Possibly) Art Journal, 1866, p. 165.

W.W.Schofield Esq.(+); Christie's, London, 31 March 1882, lot 135 (34 gns to Agnew).
Richard Hurst Esq.(+); Christie's, London, 25 April 1899, lot 118 (24 gns to Winterborn).

Pickersgill was a historical and mythological genre painter whose work possesses both academic formality and idiosyncratic charm. Paolo and Francesca derives from a series of like compositions portraying lovers from literature or myth; Viola and the Countess (Twelfth Night), for example, was completed in 1859.

His title here derives from The Story of Rimini (1816) by the essayist James Henry Leigh Hunt (1784-1859), an epic poem relating the tale of Paolo and Francesca. The story, from Dante's Inferno, is one of paridisal love turned moral shame. The married Francesca falls for her husband's brother as they study together - only to suffer eternal punishment in Dante's 'second circle' of Hell, wherein they must fly, tortured by mutual antipathy.

The subject was interpreted by a number of Victorian artists including Rossetti and Watts. Pickersgill's is remarkable for its measured and refined mood. He depicts a moment of happy sympathy, of tranquility and togetherness, set in a garden glowing with propitious sunlight.

Pickersgill executed another version of this subject; of almost identical size, it has also passed through these rooms. Unfortunately it has been impossible to establish which of the two is the Royal Academy exhibit praised by the Art Journal: 'The Lovers serves up once more a meritorious modicum of merit. This artist's romance is strictly academic in propriety.' Presumably Pickersgill was commissioned to paint another version, or to replicate the composition; alternatively he may have wished to develop it himself.

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