Illustration: Arthur Hughes. The Birth of Tristram stained glass panel, 1862.
Arthur Hughes is best known as an English painter in the Pre-Raphaelite style. He was associated with and knew most of the members of the movement and his work can be said to have certain similarities although Hughes specialised in a form of forlorn loss, with many of his narratives dealing with pathos contained within a selection of ideals, many to do with and the loss of youth, life and innocence. It is perhaps pure coincidence or a form of fortuitous foresight, or even specific planning that Hughes was given The Birth of Tristram as a subject in the cycle of stained glass panels produced by William Morris' company in 1862.
Hughes was part of group of artists and designers, including Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Valentine Cameron Prinsep, Edward Burne-Jones, Ford Madox Brown and William Morris himself, who produced a series of thirteen stained glass panels reflecting the Tristram and Isoude romance.
Hughes represented the scene of the birth of Tristram in a narrative that was full of his particular style of pathos. Tristram's mother lies dying after having just given birth to her son. He will never know her and she will never know him. The bond between mother and child has been severed by the fate and natural progression of the story. That Hughes shows this in a dignified yet still full and typically romantic mood, says much about his interests as an artist as well as the reflection of the period.
This was a period in Britain where medievalism was considered by many to be the main architectural, decorative and design style. It has become indelibly linked with the early to mid-Victorian era and will probably remain so. Although medievalism meant many things to many people, the main underlying factor seemed to be that involved with change. The nineteenth century was the first to deal with large scale restructuring of most facets of human life, many of which had not changed for generations. The industrial revolution in Britain which had emerged in the eighteenth century, had gathered such pace by the mid-nineteenth century that the country and its people were becoming so radically altered that, in many respects, it was losing connections with its past and entering a new age of steam, industrial manufacturing and increasingly mobile populations.
In some ways, the increasingly reflective identity of a medieval past was a means of retaining a connection with the cultural past of a people. The art and design world were enthusiastic proponents of a simpler and more idyllic period in Britain's past, one that had no connection to steam or industry. Interestingly, it was also a philosophy that portrayed the working man as happy but contained. The worker in medieval Britain as portrayed by at least some of the Victorian medievalists was one that knew his place in society and it was not one where he was free to move across social barriers. The hierarchy was strict, formal and set in stone. That concern for changes in the traditions of Britain were not limited to the industrial, but also entailed the fear of social movement and what that would mean for those already established in the hierarchy of the British class system, must also be seen as a factor that was reflected in the Victorian love affair with the medieval.
Many of the stained glass panels produced in 1862 were not particularly medieval in style, and were probably never meant to be. They were a reflection of the concerns and romantic illusions of a period in decorative and art history that was caught in a maelstrom of industrial, political, religious and social change, one that was so fundamental that it was to change the way Britain functioned from top to bottom. That many sought a calming and comforting factor, no matter how illusory, through the stormy seas of reform is perhaps understandable and should be seen in context with the period.
This is the last artist to be featured on The Textile Blog concerning the Tristram and Isoude stained glass series produced by Morris in 1862. Anyone interested in reading all of the articles connected to this collection can follow the links below; each artist involved has a corresponding article.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Valentine Cameron Prinsep
Edward Burne-Jones
Ford Madox Brown
William Morris
Further reading links:
