Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery Pre-Raphaelite Online Resource : The Collection

This painting, also known as 'Amy,' appears to have been an oil study for the landscape in 'The Long Engagement' (1902P13). The subject matter is very similar although in this composition the man is absent. Here, the young woman, Amy, appears to be waiting for her lover. As she adjusts her hair in preparation for meeting him, her eye rests on her name carved in the bark of the tree. Hanging from the tree are branches of ivy, symbolising the passing of time, and suggesting that the couple have been meeting secretly over a long period.Hughes used the shawl worn by Amy in his later painting 'April Love' (1855-56, oil on canvas, Tate, London).

Purchased, 1925.
© Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery

Makers

Association	Artist	Organisation
Artist	Arthur Hughes	-

Inscriptions

Type	Position(s)	Method	Date(s)	Notes
Amy / A Hughes
Inscription	-	Painted	-	Oil paint.

Exhibitions

Catalogue No.	Venue	Date(s)
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
28	City Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham	1947-06-07 - 1947-07-27

The Pre-Raphaelites
32	Whitechapel Art Gallery, London	1948-04-08 - 1948-05-12

Loan Exhibition of Pictures from the City Art Gallery Birmingham
94	Thomas Agnews & Sons, London	1957-03-27 - 1957-05-04

Theodore Fontane and the Visual Arts
43	Alte National Galerie, Berlin	1998 - 1998

Literature

Author(s)	Date(s)	Publisher	Pages
Pre-Raphaelite Painters
John Gere, Robin Ironside	1948	Phaidon, London	p. 43

Victorian Painting
Graham Reynolds	1966	Studio Vista	repr. p. 81

Arthur Hughes: The Lady with the Lilacs
Karen Finlay	1988	Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto	p. 5

William Maw Egley's 'The Talking Oak'
Susan P Casteras	1990	Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Art	p. 35; repr. p. 33

Visions of Love and Life: Pre-Raphaelite Art from the Birmingham Collection, England
Stephen Wildman	1995	Art Services International, Alexandria, Virginia	p. 177; repr. p. 175

Theodore Fontane and the Visual Arts
	1998	Alte National Galerie, Berlin	p. 91; repr. p. 91

Provenance

Benjamin Godfrey Windus; Windus sale, Christie's 19 July 1862, lot. no. 38; bought (in ?) for 35 gns. by Rhodes, and 15 February 1868 (273); bought for 10 gns. by Thomas Agnew & Sons; bought from them on 17 February 1868 by William Graham.