Portrait of Jane Fortescue Seymour, Mrs Coleridge

Sir William Boxall, RA, FRS 1800-1879

1855

Oil on panel

24 x 18 inches

PROVENANCE: The Coleridge family, and thence by descent

Boxall was a close friend of Sir John Taylor Coleridge, the husband of the sitter, one of whose ancestors was the poet, Samuel. Jane was a talented artist, and she is seen here with a sketchbook open on her lap, her head turned alertly away, keenly observing a subject for her pen.

When the painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1855, John Ruskin criticized the picture for its "excess of delicacy and tenderness" - the picture stood as the very antithesis of his creed of 'truth to nature', and he continued at considerable length: "...the faces he paints arc still little more than shadows - the reflection of iln truth in a cloudy mirror....", and "Mr Boxall will never satisfy himself, nor do his real talents justice, until he is (i 111 lent to paint, unaffectedly, as far as he is able, things as they are..." (Academy Notes, I; I,"):)).

But the reviewer of the Art Journal that year thought the head "a charming study; sweet to a degree in colour and expression" (p. 171). It was also included in the British Division of paintings in the International Exhibition of 1862, that constituted 800 pictures from 100 years back, starting with Hogarth, with Boxall one of the moderns.

References

Maas, Rupert. Catalogue. London: The Maas Gallery. 2007. Catalogue number 17.

The Maas Gallery, London has most generously given its permission to use in the Victorian Web information, images, and text from its catalogues. The copyright on text and images from their catalogues remains, of course, with the Maas Gallery. Readers should consult the gallery website to obtain information about recent exhibitions and to order their catalogues. [GPL]

---

Victorian
Web

Artists

Painting

Last modified 26 February 2012