Mary Magdalen by John Rogers Herbert

Mary Magdalen

John Rogers Herbert

Signed and dated 1859

Oil on canvas

31 x 21 inches

Exhibited at the Royal Academy 1859, no. 165

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Comentary by Rupert Maas

The painting is referred to in the Art Journal of 1859:

No. 165 'Mary Magdalen with spices, approaching the tomb of our Lord — Study for part of a picture of the holy women passing at daybreak over the place of crucifixion' J.R. Herbert, R.A. The mind is at once affected by the inward suffering betrayed by these features. The eyes are inflamed with excess of weeping, and the face is wan with watching. It is a half-length figure; she carries the vessels containing the spices, and although but half of the person is visible, we see that she is in motion. With the most perfect propriety the costume is not conspicuous; the head is enveloped in a white drapery, which falls onto the shoulders, and beside this, there is a white robe and a blue mantle, and we doubt not this arrangement, as it is managed, has been a subject of anxious study. But the effect is the triumph of the picture: the time is just after daybreak, and the yet feeble morning light falls upon the left cheek with just sufficient power to bring the head gently forward from the background. The subject is mournful; there is, consequently, no prominence of colour, and with equal good feeling no parade of manner. In deep and touching sentiment the work is not surpassed by any other of any time or any school.'

John Ruskin also wrote of it in his Notes on Pictures of 1859: 'Very beautiful, and an interesting example of the noble tendency of modern religious art to conceive scenes as they really in probability occurred; not in merely artistic modification or adaptation. The picture tells its story sufficiently, and needs no comment. It is not of high artistic merit, but a sincere and gentle conception, adequately, and therefore very touchingly expressed.'

References

Maas, Rupert. British Pictures. London: The Maas Gallery. 2006. Catalogue number 41.

Last modified 28 August 2015