The Emigration Scheme, by James Collinson (1825-1881). 1852. Oil on panel. 22 ¼ x 30 inches (56.5 x 76.2 cm.). Collection of Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber. Image courtesy of Sotheby's.
Collinson exhibited The Emigration Scheme at the National Institution of Fine Arts at the Portland Gallery in 1852, no. 286, and later that same year at the Liverpool Academy, no. 238. This is another example a modern life social realism subject by Collinson dealing with emigration. It forms an excellent pendant to his earlier Answering the Emigrant's Letter. Christopher Newall has explained the meaning of the title:
The title, The Emigration Scheme, refers to the various arrangements made by the Crown to assist working men of good character to travel to Australia with their wives and children, either by paying for passages, or by providing grants of agricultural land in the colony. In the 1850s and 1860s up to about a quarter of the total number of immigrants to Australia and Canada received some sort of government assistance. The purpose of these schemes which were much discussed in the press, and advocated by both Carlyle (in Past and Present (1843) and Dickens (in two articles in Household Words was to encourage patterns of family life to be established in the colonies, as well as to relieve distress among an expanding population at home. [89-90]
The Victorian period was, of course, a period of great emigration of Britons to Canada, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand. Few British families would not have been affected in some way by this phenomenon. Alastair Grieve has commented on Collinson's two examples of social realism, Answering the Emigrant's Letter and The Emigration Scheme: "Both are humble genre pictures painted in clear colours and with careful precision. We are shown working-class families in simple cottage interiors. The furnishings, decorations, clothes, food and tools are depicted straightforwardly. The men are in their labouring clothes, and they rely on their better educated children to read and write. Collinson shows that emigration was something which affected the whole family and about which each member had his or her own thoughts" (22). Collinson's choice of emigration subjects may have been prompted by his brother Charles's decision to emigrate to Australia where he appears to have prospered.
Collinson's painting features a young red-haired boy in the centre reading from a newspaper the Australian News to his assembled family, perhaps about the government's emigration scheme. The family listens closely as they contemplate such a move to Australia. This working-class family of seven, including two boys and three girls and their parents, are seated in a humble cottage but do not appear impoverished. As Gillian Newman notes, "they are reasonably well dressed and there is a carpet on the floor" (89). The father has a letter on his left thigh that he has recently received from a friend or relative in Australia. The mother comforts a sickly-looking young girl whose head rests on her lap Newall points out that:
Collinson may have used friends and family as models for the figures in The Emigration Scheme, as was common practice in the Pre-Raphaelite circle in the 1850s. The young woman sitting in front of the fireplace, with her hands folded on her lap, on the left side of the composition appears to be a portrait of Christina Rossetti. Collinson and Christina had parted in April 1850, prior to his entry to Stonyhurst. She continued to think of him, inquiring of her brothers as to news of her erstwhile lover and on one occasion fainting as a result of a chance encounter with him; the evidence of the present painting may suggest that he also remembered her and regretted that their hope to marry had come to naught. Clearly Christina could not have served as the actual model for the present painting, done as it was about two years after their separation…. If this theory is correct, her action of winding a necklace bearing a coral heart around her fingers takes on a poignant significance. Perhaps equally symbolic, the rosary and cross which rest on the mantle shelf just above the woman's head, as well as a small painting of the Virgin and Child, may be interpreted as Collinson's expression of regret that Christina had not followed him into the Roman Catholic Church. [90]
When it was exhibited at the National Institution in 1852 a critic for The Art Journal admired the work: "No. 286. The Emigration Scheme, J. Collinson. We cannot help admiring the earnest labour displayed in this work – the profession here is the truth, without the expediency of composition" (140). A reviewer for The Athenaeum noted this work was an advance on Collinson's previous submissions:
We have said that Mr. Collinson has in a great degree broken through the trammels of the Pre-Raphaelite heresy, and given himself back to nature without distortion. Mrs. M 'Ian's work leads us naturally to that of Mr. Collinson, entitled The Emigration Scheme (286), – where a scene somewhat similar in character takes place in one of the homes of England. The family – in humble life – have just received a letter from Australia counselling emigration, which has been read, and is undergoing serious consideration by the head of the family, while a younger man beside him has caught hopefully at the prospects which it opens, – prospects still further set forth in an Australian newspaper that a boy is eagerly reading. Two women and two children complete the group, each of the former betraying a strong anxiety, – one for the sickly child that must die before the departure of the family, – the other for what she leaves behind. The conflicting emotions to which the "scheme" has given rise are very naturally expressed; and though there is somewhat of hardness in the treatment, the picture is a great advance upon Mr. Collinson's previous efforts. [520]
W. M. Rossetti in The Spectator felt this was one of the most important figurative painting in the exhibition despite his criticism that about the "cut-out" look to the figures:
Irrespectively of landscapes, (several of which are of course good, though none extraordinary) there are about three pictures reasonably well worth looking at, – by Mrs. M' Ian [Fanny MacIan], Mr. Glass [James W. Glass], and Mr. Collinson… The most finished painting of the three with whose mention we started is Mr. Collinson's Emigration Scheme, – a pendant, though on a smaller scale, to his Emigrant's Letter of 1850; and to which there would be little to object were its subject more salient, and its treatment free from some plethora of objects, and a certain isolated cut-out look in the figures. A family-group is assembled in a cottage indicative of decent comfort. The husband has on his knee an open letter – received, as we infer, from a friend at the Antipodes; and the circle is listening thoughtfully to a boy who reads from the Australian News. Truth and delicacy of expression are visible in the sickly-looking little girl who has fallen asleep, with her head against her mother's lap, and in her more wakeful sister, paying wide-eyed attention to the marvellous prospects unfolded as a reader proceeds. The mother watchfully tending the slumbering child; the younger woman – an unmarried sister probably – the deep reverie of whose eyes accords with the fixed yet reposeful tension of her whole posture; and the husband himself, anxiously debating of the future in his own mind – bear their parts well and individually; the least significant feature being that of a young man, the last among the group. The colour is bright, and a great care has been bestowed on the object-painting. [422]
A reviewer for The Illustrated London News felt the picture was part of the current "mania" for paintings dealing with emigration:
In connexion with this subject we find another picture in the same room, taking up another phase of the "emigration mania," as it is called, and which only shows how art can find themes, and worthy themes, in the great practical interests of life, if it will only seek for them. Collinson's little picture, the Emigration Scheme, represents the interior of the dwelling of a labourer, or small farmer, in straightened, but not absolutely penurious circumstances. A letter from a friend or relation in South Australia has just arrived, and is being read by the husband, who sits with his hands crossed over his knee, ruminating upon it; whilst his wife, from a short distance, watches intently and anxiously the workings of his mind betrayed in his countenance. The wife, probably, with the weakness and tenacity of her sex, loves her old home and her old friends, and would rather struggle on in the old homely way, than try new schemes of sudden fortune-making in distant and strange lands. Meanwhile, a chubby youth, the eldest-born of the family, is conning with greedy eye over the Australian News. Three other figures – a neighbour, and his wife and sickly child – are introduced to hear the news; and the varied expression of the countenances clearly defines the situation, and assures us that the usual calm context of this rustic circle has been disturbed, and will remain so for some days to come. In the details of this picture the artist revels in textural minutiae, as of velveteen jackets, corduroy continuations, patched hob-nailed boots, Indian matting, &c., which have become a sort of labour of love with some painters of our day, and which is unobjectionable in pieces of small dimensions like the present. [343]
Bibliography
"The Exhibitions." The Illustrated London News XX (1 May 1852): 343.
Grieve, Alastair. The Art of Dante Gabriel Rossetti. 2. The Pre-Raphaelite Modern-Life Subject. Norwich: Real Life Publications, 1976.
"The National Institution, Portland Gallery." The Art Journal New Series IV (1 May 1852): 138-40.
"National Institution of Fine Arts." The Athenaeum No. 1280 (8 May 1852): 520-21.
Newall, Christopher. Victorian Pictures. London: Sotheby's (2 November 1994): lot 163. 88-90.
Newman, Helen D. James Collinson (aka "The Dormouse"). Foulsham: Reuben Books, 2016. 89-90.
Peattie, Roger W. "W. M. Rossetti's Reviews of James Collinson." The Journal of Pre-Raphaelite Studies V, no. 2, (May 1985): 101-02.
Rossetti, William Michael: "Fine Arts. Exhibition of the National Institution." The Spectator XXV (1 May 1852): 422.
Created 1 March 2024